Exuberant
by ObscureAuthor
Summary: Modern AU! Marco x Ace! Zoro x Sanji! After getting dumped by his long-time girlfriend, Ace doesn't know what to do anymore but his friend Thatch convinces him to go to a party where Ace meets a seemingly laid-back socialite named Marco. Marco doesn't turn out to be who he is, and Ace is soon enveloped in his life. For the OP Big Bang Challenge! Full list of warnings inside ...
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys! After several months, I completed ImperialMint's One Piece Big Bang Challenge. For those of you who don't know what it is basically what you had to do was write a 25,000 word One Piece Fan Fiction from October 2014 to April 2015. Also, you were paired up with an artist who made a piece for your story.**

**It is done! A special thanks goes out to ImperialMint, for inviting me to be in the challenge in the first place. How could I forget ChibiKanakoNyu, the wonderful artist who illustrated the art? BTW, she is on Tumblr, and her Tumblr, and her art s amazing. You guys should really check it out sometime. **

**Thanks, guys! :D**

**The main pairing for this story is Marco x Ace with a vampire S&amp;M twist to it and a side-story with Zoro x Sanji, and Zoro x Kuina. I decided that making it an emotional BL would go along better with the story than a yaoi, but there is hints of yaoi in it. There's also more angst in this than I had originally planned for there to be. I'll admit that this story will not make any sense at all. This story may offend some people. I'm sorry if it does.**

**Warnings:Underage sexual activities, blood, marking, non-con, drug and alcohol use, depression, thoughts of suicide, sadism, masochism, swordplay.**

**There is multiple chapters to this story and takes place in the same world as one of my other stories, **_**Dirty Laundry**_**. This story takes place about a year or so before that one but there is no Law x Luffy or Kid x Luffy in this one.**

**I don't own One Piece so don't sue me. Constructive criticism is also okay with me, so if you have any, please tell me. Enjoy! :D**

* * *

As I stare at the ceiling all I can think about is how I can't open the window and let the outside world see me. This is mainly due to the fact that I haven't bothered to make myself look human and will probably never feel human again.

Vivi must be going through a totally different situation. She probably isn't hiding from the media with her blinds closed and with hair so messy that rats could nest in it. Vivi doesn't have to deal with being talked about over the water cooler or in some random beauty parlor.

If she wasn't out on the streets modeling some new designer outfit then she was probably back home, at her family's house. Actually, the Nefertari family lives in a castle –being royalty and all.

The reason why we met was because she was obviously accepted into every college she applied to and she just happened to chose my school. That's how we met –sitting side-by-side on the rim of a fountain when it was almost dark. I imagined that Vivi was already seeing another person. If I closed my eyes long enough I envisioned the perfect boyfriend, the kind of person that she could've dated for three years and not broken up with. The kind of guy that was nothing like me.

I can't get over it.

I'm generally known as a nice guy and as a nice guy, I usually get treated fairly well. I'd always smile at people, laugh at even the lamest jokes, and hold doors for the elderly –that kind of stuff. And say yes to girls I knew I had no chance with in the long-run.

I roll over and consider checking my phone to see if anybody bothered to call. Don't even let me get started on how many pointless sympathy texts spammed my email once TMZ found out about everything. Most of them were from people I had never met and some of them were in foreign languages. There was even one in Swedish, but that's not the point.

The point is that even though I got the emails that I still felt like crap. There was a few from my friends and family. I just couldn't bring myself to reply to those. What if they come here and see me like this? How do I not know that there's not some sort of secret camera in here? If I answer those texts, could they get leaked?

I have no idea what made me do what I did next. I hurled my cell phone to the other side of my bedroom, where it landed somewhere behind my dresser. I heard the screen crack. I hate that thing.

Another reminder of the way that she decided to break up with me. Vivi didn't even have the guts to say those things to my face, yet the whole world knows about it because our conversation somehow got leaked onto the Internet. Now all people can remember is my terrible stutter and what she called me.

Suddenly, the door opens and my roommate lets himself in and sits down in my desk chair without even asking. "What broke?"

I glance over. Thatch has his arms crossed against his chest and he's not smiling.

"You mean, besides my pride?" I reply and Thatch chuckles. It wasn't meant to be funny. "I threw my cell phone. I might have to get the screen fixed."

"Ace," Thatch pauses. He stares at me for a long time until it starts to creep me out. Then he finally said, "You're going to have to get out of here sometime."

I mumble something which may have passed for, "I'd rather die than go out in public again."

"Well, whatever. Luffy called while you were sleeping," he changes the topic. He knew that something like that would get my attention.

Luffy is my younger brother and maybe one of the only people who could really make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, even before Vivi came along.

"Really? What did he say?" I feel bad for sulking so much.

"He sounded like he was desperate. Luffy wanted to know how you were doing. Most importantly, your family thought that you had committed suicide due to your general absence from society," Thatch's face is grim, but determined. "He pleaded me to ask you to do two things. Just two things."

Like what? Oh my gosh, were they really that worried? I feel like such a monster that I blurt out, "Tell me!" I'm actually sitting up for a change.

"First, he told me to wake you up, but I see that you're wide-awake after giving you that news. Then he begged me to try to convince you to get out of bed, take a shower, and eat something."

"Is that it?" I squint. "That and the fact that Luffy wants you to quote 'have fun'," Thatch nodded. "Seriously?" because I can't bring myself to believe the part about 'fun'.

"I promise," he grinned. "So what do you say? I could call him right now and tell him that you're dead –"

"You don't have to do that," I interrupt. "I'll do it."

"You gave in so quickly. See? Vivi really was a manipulating bitch that was just using you to make that one actor dude jealous!" his face changes until he looks guilty. "Ooops. I wasn't supposed to tell you that, was I?"

In my bravest voice, I manage to say, "That guy must be wasting his time."

Though on the inside, I feel awful. It's like somebody is repeatedly stabbing me in the chest and isn't giving me time to recover from the previous blow. I get that it isn't Thatch's fault for me not being good enough.

"That's the spirit. Shouldn't we take a celebration selfie?" Thatch waves his own cell phone in front of my face.

The last selfie I took was the day before my break-up. I had been eating ice cream with Vivi under the shade of one of the many trees in the park. She had playfully put some of her ice cream on my chin to make it look like I had grown a beard or something. That one didn't go on Instagram.

If you looked up the word 'untidy' in the dictionary, I'm sure be the definition. I knew I didn't look so hot lying in bed the way I was for the past week or so, but shit, even my old high school principal looked better than I did in the selfie. And that guy was ancient.

We add no Photoshop or any kind of editing to our picture. I tried for a smile and only a weak one came out – Thatch looked like one of those people off a tooth-paste commercial.

"So?" he sounds excited. Like a teenty-bopper-at-their-first-concert kind of excited. Silence. "So?" his voice is practically oozing with happiness. The situation strikes me as so ridiculously lame that I actually laugh.

"Heck yeah! That's the spirit, man. This is great progress. Here, I'll even make breakfast while you take a shower," Thatch offers, because he is the best roommate in the world. "And call Luffy back to tell him all about it."

Now I smile for real. "Thanks, dude."

Some old alternative music happens to play just as I'm getting out of the shower. Thatch's choice of music is pretty much the same as my own: Everything from R.E.M. to Dinosaur Jr. All of that influential music that most people these days don't appreciate. Sure, we weren't even alive when some of the music was made, but that's what makes it kind of cool. We can listen to a modern rock song and trace it back to how U2 sounded like in the 1980s.

He's even singing. I'm so used to him doing this that I don't mind. Like he promised, he cooked: A great big chocolate cake with too-much frosting. See, our general idea of breakfast is whatever we can find in the fridge. Outside of the occasional spurge we almost never eat 'real' food, if you know what I mean. We're both in school and part-time jobs have horrible pay.

How we survive, I don't know. Thatch and I don't really care about eating healthy, either. That's why we exercise. Soon enough, I'm pigging out alongside him as if it were any other day of the week. I listen to him talk about what's all happened over the past few days (thankfully he says no more celebrity gossip, though).

"A woman got shot in front of her kids in a parking lot?" my eyes widen.

Fuck. And I thought my life sucked. "Yup. That's unfair, isn't it?" he shakes his head. "It's like, 'Okay, here's a kid. Maybe I can shoot their mother right in front of them!'"

I think. Not about the shooting, but how unfair life can be and what can help me accept that. Nothing comes to mind and is just a reminder that there is really no peace in your life until you die. I swear, Vivi screwed up my head. I'm having all these thoughts run through my head as memories of the past float around inside my head as words squeeze their way in between all of it.

"So I was thinking," Thatch says. "That maybe you'd be interested into going to Izo's house with me tonight? I dunno. Izo's family isn't going to be home so he invited me over to marathon this show on Netflix."

Izo is another friend of ours who may seem like a pretty normal dude at first glance. He's fiercely loyal and gets the right grades. Everything he does pleases his parents. I wonder if they'd want to find out that their son is a casual cross-dresser when they're not around.

When I first met Izo, he was dressed like a woman. Actually, I thought he was a woman and we were both at a party so I was like, Hey, maybe we can flirt. Things went good and I wasn't that ticked off from the deep voice I was hearing.

Then Izo asked me whether I was gay. "What?" I had laughed.

Izo winked. "I'm a dude, if you couldn't tell earlier. You're not bad-looking at all, but don't tell anybody that I said that."

Eventually, I got to know him better and found out that he was an awesome person to be around. I don't even care that he thinks that I'm sexy.

"That doesn't sound too bad." I imagine the three of us bumming out hardcore in his living room while eating too-much junk food, howling with laughter as we're watching all of our shows. The typical everyday pursuits of young adults.

"Sweet," I can see the cake that's stuck in between his teeth. I remind myself not to burst out laughing. "He won't mind one bit. I think a few others will also come."

None of them better ask me questions that I won't want to answer.


	2. Chapter 2

Later that evening I find myself getting ready for a night at Izo's house and am having a really hard time with doing simple tasks.

Like deciding what to wear.

"It's just that I don't know whether I should wear the one with stripes … or maybe the plaid one?" I toss both shirts aside. I want to rip my hair out in frustration.

Why do I care so much about what to wear? It's not like I cared before. What's wrong with me?

"You haven't worn your basic V-neck in a while," Thatch reminds me from the bathroom. He's trying to do something with his hair and it isn't really working out for him. "Maybe you can wear that?"

I got that shirt as a birthday present from Luffy some time ago, but the shirt still fits just fine. One thing that I hadn't noticed about the shirt until I tried it on was that the shirt makes me look even more athletic-looking than I already am. Apparently girls like the shirt, so I wear it anyway.

I pair the V-neck with the first pair of jeans I see lying down on my floor. One thing about moving out is that I can be as sloppy as I want to be without anybody yelling at me to clean something up.

After Thatch realizes that all the hair gel he put in his hair might not ever come out, we go out the door.

I wear a scarf that covers part of my face and sunglasses that cover the parts of my face that the scarf doesn't. It's too warm for the scarf and the sunglasses look silly, considering that it's already dark and it might rain soon, but I don't care.

Going incognito didn't really work out for me. Going out in public wearing a disguise might actually work, though.

We manage to get out of the lobby without many people giving us weird looks. See that black-haired dude wearing the scarf next to the guy with too-much hair gel in his hair? They don't look suspicious at all.

"I swear, Izo better not start watching those shows without us!" Thatch cries as the two of us hurry down the suburban sidewalk. "I love the freakin' Walking Dead and he knows that very well. If there was a zombie apocalypse I'd take all my survival advice from those people."

I could've told him that if a zombie apocalypse did happen that the chances of him surviving from taking advice from actors would be highly unlikely. I didn't tell him that.

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING! RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING! RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!

Should I answer?

I fish into my jeans until I retrieve my cell phone from the depths of pocket. When I see the caller ID, I nearly hurl over on the spot.

It's her.

Vivi didn't bother to make contact with me during the past few days. She made it very clear that she didn't want anything to do with me after she called things off the way that she did.

For a second I'm tempted to pick up and beg her to take me back. I don't care that it would be desperate, there was still a part of me that had feelings for her.

"Who is it?" Thatch stops talking about zombies and suddenly seems interested in the current situation.

I gulp. "Vivi."

It keeps ringing. My hand is shaking and I've broken out into a cold sweat. People are now looking and giving me looks that clearly say, Well aren't you going to answer? If only they knew.

The ringing stops and that's when I forget how to breathe.

Please leave a message after the tone. BEEP!

I don't remember bringing my phone to my face or removing my scarf.

Suddenly I don't care about anything else.

There is a train whistle in the background.

I even forgot what made me say what I said next.

"... I know that you were having a bad day and everything and though the reasons are still unclear, deep down I still believe that you're not a bad person. Just forget about it because I've already moved on, though I will never forget you."

Thatch's eyes widen. He knows who I called and now that the witnesses know who I am, they know who I was calling, too.

Thatch beats me into saying, "Run like hell."

That sounds like a good idea …

"OMG, that can't be who I think it is!"

"Hey! Come back here and tell us how you feel about your break-up!"

We're half way down the block by now.

"Wasn't he in hiding?"

"It's him! The same Portgas D. Ace who was dating Princess Nefertari Vivi."

The people have the nerve to start chasing after us. I lose my scarf in the process, but I don't dare go back and get it. One of the females in the crowd keeps it and probably would show it to all the paparazzis.

"Could you please date me?"

"Who's the mystery man with him?"

They aren't slow at all. They're practically on our heels.

In high school I was on several sports teams and sports were the reason why I got into the college I wanted to get into. I had the grades, but needed assistance so I got a scholarship. The thing is that I was on the cross-country team and was the fastest runner on the mens' team. I could beat everybody by running a mile in less than four minutes without even feeling that tired.

That was a couple of years ago. I haven't stopped exercising, but I had gotten slower. The last time I had timed myself in running a mile was about a month before the break-up. I ran a mile in seven minutes.

Take me and Thatch –who by the way, can run a mile in nine minutes– who might not be as fast as the people chasing us. I swear, some of them must've been middle-schoolers or something.

We take a turn and without thinking, start running on the road.

When you think about it, we could've gotten killed. I'm surprised that there wasn't many cars on the road, but there was a few.

"Thatch! Are those bitches still following us?"

"Yeah!" he pants as he turns around to glare at the people. He doesn't stop running and neither do I.

Shit fuck, shit fuck, shit fuck, shit fuck, SHIT!

I make the decision to stop. look around. We're now in this upscale neighborhood where the houses are set back from the road and there's enough room for things like tennis courts and large gardens. Actually, the houses are more like mansions that looked as if they came straight out of a magazine.

I notice that there is a car parked outside not so far away from where I am standing. The car is a 2015 Corvette Z06 that looks like it could've cost a fortune. By most people's standards, the car is sexy. Then again, the person who owns it is probably another one of the rulers of the universe.

A crazy idea hits me: What if Thatch and I "borrowed" the car?

No, I wasn't thinking about stealing the car. We could use the car to escape and bring it back later without anybody noticing that it was ever gone. Nobody would get hurt.

I dash to the car in a vain effort to get away.

Now, you have to think about how stupid my next move was. There had to be some sort of camera hidden in the neatly-trimmed bushes. We were being watched.

I didn't care.

I peeked into the windows and almost have a heart attack. Not only is the interior gorgeous, but the idiot who owned the car left the keys in the ignition!

I open the door.

"Thatch! Over here!"

"Are you out of your mind?"

"Maybe!" I actually laugh. I laughed. "It'll work. Trust me. Now get your ass over here!"

He obeys and just in time, too.

The people are crowded around the car. While Thatch is freaking out in the passenger seat, I start the car and hear the wonderful sound of the motor. A dubstep song blasts out of the speakers and Thatch turns down the volume.

The people are still yelling at us, mostly me, but that doesn't matter. I honk the horn, threatening them to get out of the way.

Finally, I back the car up and swerve around the girl. We don't have time for this.

We race down the street going as fast as the car will take us with the windows down.

"Ace, do you know how much trouble you've gotten us in? Those people probably have phones. They'll call the cops on us and we'll be doomed, especially since they know who you are. Oh my gosh, this can't be happening how could you–"

"Thatch?"

"Yeah?" he replies as our hair is ruffled by the wind.

"Calm down," I pass a red light without even noticing.

It's a relief when we finally get in Izo's neighborhood. The rain has stopped. Something seems different about his neighbourhood, though.

What's up with all the cars that are parked up and down the street?, I think to myself. I don't know any people who own the cars that are parked on his street so maybe one of his neighbors are hosting a party.

Everything changes once we actually reach his house. The lights are off and the bass rattles the concrete. You can hear shouting and something crashing inside his house.

No way. Izo is having a party?

My eyes widen as I turn over to Thatch.

"He didn't tell me about this," Thatch grins.

I can't tell whether he's lying or not, but it doesn't matter.

We're returning this car once we're done here.

When we knock on the door, nobody opens it. I doubt they can even hear us knocking. We have to knock three times before somebody actually opens the door for us.

A girl I don't know opens the door. She's wearing so much makeup, she looks like a racoon.

"Oh, hello boys!" she greets us. "You in the mood to party?"

"We're not here for the pa–"

"Ace loves to party," Thatch interrupts. I give him a look.

The girl smiles even more as she lets us in. "He better because the party is going strong!"

It's a disaster scene. Never in my life would I expect Izo to host a party where everything is dark and his whole house is smoky. The music is too loud and people are strung out on just about everything under the sun.

Where is Izo? Who are most of these people?

Thatch is no longer next to me. Great, now I'm alone.

I wonder around his house, which no longer looks like it used to. His parents are going to kill him once they see that an obese kid is running around wrapped in some bed sheets and people are jumping on the couches. Glass beer bottles litter the floor along with cigarette butts and who-knows-what.

My head starts to hurt. I settle down and decide to stick with a can of soda instead of beer.

Just as I'm taking the first sip of my soda, my cell phone slides out of my pocket. Crap. A person runs by and breaks the poor thing once and for all.

There goes my cell phone.

After five minutes, I'm already hating the party. I close my eyes and groan.

When I open them, I find a blonde man kneeling down and picking up the remains of my cell phone.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

The man looks up. He looks as if he could be a model with sunken eyes. He's leanly-muscular and his purple shirt is unbuttoned to reveal his toned body. I can't help but look because he's sexy.

Wait–I think another man is sexy?

I shake my head.

"I'm picking up these bits of glass, yoi. Somebody could get hurt," he points out in a deep voice that is like silk. He deposits the remains of my phone in a small pile on the floor. "It could've even been you."

I start to blush. I put my soda down. "I dunno."

"You look familiar," the man tilts his head in interest. This makes him look even more attractive. "Who are you?"

"I don't even know you," I stammer and immediately regret it.

That was so lame.

"You're so innocent," every syllable is flirtatious in a manner that makes him irresistible. "My name is Phoenix Marco, but everybody just calls me Marco."

"Phoenix. Like the actor?"

"No, I wasn't named after River Phoenix like most people think I was. My parents named me after the mythological creature because they wanted me to grow up to be powerful and influential," he rolls his eyes. "What's your name?"

I glance around to make sure nobody else is around. "I'm Ace."

Most people guess that I was named after Ace Ventura and that my parents were Jim Carrey fans. No. The truth is that my parents got married and had their honeymoon in Las Vegas. They were both addicted to gambling. "Portgas" was my mom's family name, my initial, "D" was my dad's and was always a secret, and "Ace" came in because of the playing card.

"Ace. Such a statement name," he holds my eyes with his own. "Now tell me Ace, who are you?"

Something about him makes me say, "Who are you?"

He chuckles as if it's some kind of joke. "Nobody important, yoi. "I'm one of those unemployed bums who doesn't see the need to work. I don't need to. I dedicate all of my free time to socialization and that's all day long."

So Marco is a rich socialite with no worries in life. No wonder he seems so carefree.

"I'm just your average college student," I said. "Me and one of my friends share an apartment on Appletree Street and work at this one Japanese restaurant to pay off our debts."

Life isn't free.

"If there was something you could wish for to have in life, what would it be?"

Where did that question come from?

Thinking about it, I thought my life was perfect. That was before the break-up. Now I feel a void in my heart and don't know what's missing, but something is.

"I'd have to think about it," I lie. "What about you?"

He grins lazily. "A good fuck. It's hard to find somebody who can keep up with my demands."

Again, I blush. Marco is looking straight at me. Has he been thinking about sex the entire time?

"So you're single?" I assume.

Marco nods. "You make it sound like you are, too."

"Well, sort of," I don't want him to know who I really am. "Maybe."

"In my world, there is only two kinds of answers I want to hear. Those are 'yes' and 'no'. That doesn't fall under either category," he leans in. "I need to know and I want to know now."

"How demanding. Can I have your phone number?"

"It's just that you smell so good," he smiles as he writes his name on my arm with a Sharpie I found in one of my pockets.

"How do I know you're not a pimp?" I ask him after he gives me my Sharpie back.

"Do I look like a pimp?" Marco asks.

No, he doesn't.

I decide to mess with him some more. "Maybe."

Marco makes an incredulous expression. "Stop acting like such a bitch," he whispers in my ear. His teeth nibble at my earlobe and cause me to run down my spine. Marco has very sharp teeth that I hadn't noticed before because he barely opens his mouth when he speaks.

"That hurts," I say.

"Don't pretend that you don't like it," his hands make their way over the front of my body. His hands are cool against my skin and I catch my breath.

A man has never done this kind of thing to me before. It's different when a female is doing this to you because they'll usually go slow, unless they're excited or desperate. With a male, you can't be sensitive. Everything is so rushed.

My own hands pull him closer. It's wrong, but it feels so right.

I start to make throaty noises that I didn't know I or any other human could even make. They're deep and I know he hears them because the next thing he says is:

"Louder. I love it when I can hear them. It's simply arousing, especially if they scream."

Is he telling me to exaggerate?

"Mmm, Marco … ah, not there!"

The sadist starts to bite me just above my left collar bone and though it's supposed to hurt, I actually enjoy the pain. All I've felt is pain during the past few days, but this pain feels different.

The skin around his teeth marks is darker than the rest of my skin so it;s not hard to notice the bite marks. They're going to take awhile to heal.

Marco playfully tugs at my bottom lip. I think he's going to start kissing me, but boy was I wrong.

"Ow! Why did you do that?"

Marco cut open my bottom lip so it's bleeding. The open cuts starts to sting and I wince.

"Every time you look in a mirror you will be reminded of who did it to you," Marco seems pleased with himself, but I'm having second thoughts about him. "I like that."

"What if somebody asks me about it? I can't just say that you bit me!"

Marco shrugs like it's not a big deal. "Oh well. Anyway, it'll take ages for it to heal."

"And you aren't sorry?" I howl.

"No."

"Whatever," I made the mistake of talking to him. I'm pissed and have already made plans to leave. When I try to free myself of his grip, I find that it's difficult to do so. "Hey, let go of me!"

Marco smiles. A great grand smile so all of his teeth are showing, including a set of fangs.

My heart races.

Somebody must've put something in my drink. There is no way that he can really have fangs!

"I don't think so," he replies, his mouth on my neck.

Anger and frustration posses me. My hands fly to his neck as I try to choke him. Marco knows I'm trying to do this to time and he stops my move before it even happens.

My mouth is gaping at him. "What the …?"

His eyes have darkened to an aggressive shade of cobalt. "You move, you die."


	3. Chapter 3

In a situation where you're threatened, what would you do?

Normally, what you're supposed to do is obey whatever the other person says and hope that they're nice so you don't get hurt. Normally, what you're not supposed to do is try to scream and thrash around. Which is exactly what I, Portgas D. Ace, did when Marco the vampire tried to bite me.

"Oh my gosh, even teenage girls are quieter than you are!" he snaps. Marco clasps one of his hands over my mouth and uses the other to press my neck against the wall. His grip is like iron. "I told you that if you moved you'd die."

I can't die. Not here! Not now. Where is Thatch? Izo? What about Sabo, is he here?

I don't see anybody I know. We're in a corner and nobody even looks over at us. Maybe they can't hear what's going on.

All I can do is stare. My body is paralyzed by just looking into Marco eyes – which are hauntingly beautiful. This is my nightmare, but only this nightmare is one that I don't have to be asleep to suffer in.

His cool, moist tongue slides over my skin and chill bumps have already risen to the surface. My hair must be prickling his tongue and I'm glad I forgot to shave. Marco moves slowly, in small circles as if savoring his prey.

Well this should be the highlight of my year, I think to myself. Marco's breath hits my own flesh and I find this to be particularly disturbing.

"Stop with the sarcasm," he remarks, widening his mouth over my neck. "I know that you're really a masochist and you'll enjoy this as much as I will."

I close my eyes as Marco's fangs pierce through my tender flesh. To avoid from yelping out I close my mouth over a balled fist and instead of hoping for the best, I embrace the thoughts that occur to me.

Why does this make him seem so … demanding? Protective? It's almost like he actually cares about me. This just makes Marco seem so much sexier.

Does this make me a masochist?

The metallic tang that comes with blood assaults my senses and a feeling that I can't really describe runs through my body.

Marco is furiously draining my body fluids as if he has been deprived for a long time. His eyes are closed in a lustful concentration. I bet he has. I'm glad that I'm doing this for a good cause.

He wants this. I like it. He needs it. I love that.

Marco owns me.

Soon enough my body grows used to the position that he has me in. I smile at him.

"I hope you get as much as you need," I manage to say. My voice is huskier than it was earlier and I'm panting. "I don't give a damn."

His eyelids pop open and his eyes flit up to look at me in the face. Blood runs down his chin and has already made it's way down my neck.

Do you really mean that?, I hear his voice say inside my head.

You can read my thoughts? How can I hear you inside my head?, I need to know.

Because, he replies. He's back to sucking my blood. I just can.

I bite down on my bloody lip as his fangs seep deeper into me.


	4. Chapter 4

"Luffy, if you check your phone again in the next five minutes I'm going to slap you."

I'm stubbornly glued to the screen of my cell phone. My friends and I are hanging out at the mall, near a fountain, but I couldn't really get into the fun. How could I, with Ace acting all depressing and stuff?

I looked over at Nami. "Can't you just leave me alone?"

Oops! That didn't come out right. I felt my face growing hot from embarrassment, which is something I don't feel much. Of course, my friends had to point this very detail out.

"Crushcrushcrush!" Franky teased. Zoro grinned.

"YOHOHOHO!" Brook laughed.

"Are you okay, Luffy?" Chopper asked me.

A really overplayed song is playing inside the mall and I haven't eaten in at least three hours. I don't want to call home because I promised that I would get a ride from Brook and my grandpa will freak out once he hears his phone ringing. He'd pick me up for sure and I need a break from home after being there for so long due to the crisis that we were in.

No! It's not okay. Not when I don't know whether Ace is safe or not …

I shook my head as I let my body slip to the floor.

Sanji squats down on the floor next to me, aware of the stares that we've attracted from other people in the mall.

"Want the rest of my peanuts? I'm really not very hungry anymore and I thought that you would want some," he said, offering me the bag.

"Crushcrushcrush!" Brook repeats. Usopp looks worried as if he's afraid Sanji will punch Brook or something. Zoro frowns slightly.

Silently, I take the bag from him and tilt it so the contents fall straight into my open mouth. I swallow and chew thoughtfully. My friends lean in, expecting the effects of the snack to kick in.

"So?" Usopp urges.

Even Robin looks alert.

I take a deep breath.

"Swallow some flies, won't you?" Zoro teases, rolling his eyes at me.

"Marimo, if I hear one more smart comment from you I'm going to kick your ass," Sanji threatens him.

Zoro stands up. "Excuse me?"

Usopp gulps. "Oh boy."

"You heard me!"

Nami knows that this is going to escalate into something huge so she does them a personal favor my slamming both of their heads together. Their heads may hurt, but at least they're not covered in bruises, right?

I sigh.

"So?" Franky repeats.

"Nothing," I mutter.

"We need to make that frown turn upside down!" Brook chorused.

I tilt my head. How?

"I dunno. Something! We need to do something."

Franky looks to see if many people are looking. If you think about it, my group of friends is pretty wild. You have me, who loves eating all the time and is super-hyper. Franky has blue hair, cosplays as mecha robots in public, and likes anything to do with ships. He's Franky-bro. Nami loves fashion and money, she'll do anything for the two, but she's really nice. Most of the time. Robin doesn't talk much, she's not shy at all and is intelligent. Zoro is into athletics and always trains to be a great swordsman. Sanji is a great cook and wears suits all the time. Him and Zoro are major rivals. Chopper is kind of shy and nerdy. Overall, he's pretty cool. Brook is our music man and is older than most of us–he's a sophomore in college and the rest of us are freshmen.

Why wouldn't people be looking over?

I stand up and excuse myself to the bathroom.

I don't realize that I'm running until I'm halfway to the nearest mens' room. I don't even have to use the bathroom, I just have to check my phone.

My friends can't see me speeding past the mens' room so they have no idea what my real intentions are. I congratulate myself for being able to keep my secrets to myself.

I find an empty bench and decide to sit down. Then I dial …only to my horror, find out that Ace isn't picking up at all! It's as if Ace's phone died or got broken or something.

These preteens standing near me that must be waiting on their parents or somebody hear me groan as I set down my phone. They giggle, but are nice enough not to say any smart comments about me out loud. I see them pull out a tablet and send all these Snaps to their friend. In each one I'm sure that I'm making the Grumpy Cat face.

"What took you so long?" Nami demands to know once she sees me moping back to our group.

"Somebody threw up and it took the janitor forever to clean the mess up," I lie. I was taught that lying is wrong, but sometimes lies can be useful. If I told my friends about what had really happened they would worry about me. "They're fine now."

"Whatever," then she squeals, pointing at a sign in the window of one of the stores, "Ooo! LOOK! There's a sale going on at PacSun. We should so go check it out!"

Robin smiles slightly. "I think I might go as well."

"If the ladies want to go then I want to go as well!" Sanji announces.

"YOHOHOHO!" says yeah, you guessed it, Brook.

We find ourselves inside of PacSun and the girls are the only ones who seem into it. Well, Sanji is twirling around the girls and trying to flirt with them. Usopp runs straight to where all the music is. Zoro is confused about all the hype and glumly stares at the floor. Franky, Brook, and Chopper oogle over the beanies and laugh while trying some of the sillier ones one. Me?

I let myself casually stroll up to Zoro.

I go, "Hey."

He looks at me through the corner of his eye. "Hey."

"So, what's up?" I take a calmer approach because I sense that he's not in a good mood.

"Not much. Just the fact that Nami wants to buy tees from a brand that encourages anorexia and filtered Instagram pictures."

I kind of laugh. "Brandy Melville?"

He nods. "That bitch. Anyway, Sanji is more annoying than the wannabe-surfer types that shop here."

When did we start talking about Sanji?

"Really?" I ask, because Sanji doesn't annoy me. Actually, Sanji has never annoyed me before.

"I can't stop from hating him. Even when I'm not around him, I think of how much I hate him. I think Sanji is the only person I actually hate," said Zoro. He's getting stares after sprinkling in the word 'hate' in his sentences so much. Yet he still doesn't care. "Yeah. That sounds about right."

And it's always been that way, too. For as long as I can remember, Zoro and Sanji have never really gotten along. One always thinks that he's better than the other person so some sort of competition starts between the two of them. Aside from a few moments of peace, they're always hostile toward each other. Always.

"I don't know what to say," I admit. "That sounds like something you'd have to talk to him about."

The funny thing is that Sanji and I were having a similar conversation just the week before.

"Are you kidding me?" he shoots me an incredulous look. "That guy is pea-brained as crap. Even if I tried that whatever I told him would go through one ear and come right out the other. No way."

I shrug. "I dunno."

"You're not helping me at all."

Now Zoro feels offended as if I'm really not trying my best. Hey–I'm not lazy, I'm just kind of slow sometimes.

Why is he acting like this anyway?

There's some silence between us. Again, I have no idea what to say to him. I glance over at the dudes trying on the beanies and think, Dang! They must be having the best time ever. Then, I feel guilty for even considering ditching Zoro because he decided to be boring.

Maybe Zoro feels the same way.

"And about what Franky said earlier … about a crush ..." his voice drops. Zoro is suddenly very serious and his gray eyes are more intense than usual. "What was that about?"

Franky and his big mouth!

"He was just being dumb, I guess. It's not really a big deal," I shrug it off. I make sure that I don't look over in Sanji's direction for more than a few seconds before reverting my gaze back to my green-haired friend.

"Are you sure?"

Are you indirectly assuming that I have a crush on Sanji and that I'm … gay?

Grandpa Garp always teases Ace and I about how he wants grandchildren when we're older, but I could never see myself married. That would be hetero, like, straight. In high school, Ace went in a phase where he started dating men as well. That never happened to me. In fact, I had never really had a real relationship before. Nobody seemed to be interesting and although I met some interesting people over the years, none of them clicked with me.

Really, it's a simple question: What gender are you attracted to? For me, it was kind of hard to answer that, but it explained the weird dreams.

"I'm sure," I promised. "Sanji isn't even my type. He, uh, smokes and is too picky about a lot of stuff. Sometimes opposites don't attract."

"I can't believe it, Luffy," Zoro smirks. "Did you just come out of the closet?"

Kind of, yeah. It feels as if somebody lifted a one ton weight off my chest and I can finally breathe. Yes, that's how it feels like to tell somebody a secret like that.

"I had no idea. Does anybody else know?"

"No, nobody but you knows. For now, can we keep it a secret?" I almost plead. I still feel bashful about it. How would the other react? "Please?"

"Sure," he said.

"Zoro?"

"Yeah?" Zoro is still grinning.

I hope I'm not going too far and that I don't sound wrong when I ask, "What are you?"

"Excuse me? What kind of question is that?" Zoro squints at me, but it's obvious that he knows what I'm talking about.

"What's your preference?" I clarify, keeping my voice to a whisper. I gulp when I notice that the girls dart nearby to look at the shoes. Nami is literally dragging Sanji around by holding his wrist and Sanji seems lovesick.

"Listen, this is going to sound really mean, but why the fuck do you even care?" Zoro drawls. He crosses his arms across his chest. "I don't like you and I can tell that you don't like me. The end. How do you not know that I'm asexual or something?"

"And that is …"

"It means that you're not attracted to anybody in a sexual kind of way. Which is something I may or may not be, Straw Hat," he mutters.

"I told you!" I know my face must be red. "It's not fair that you won't tell me."

The face that Zoro makes next is a perfect mixture of disgust and disappointment. "Life isn't fair. You want you know something?" he lets out a low chuckle, but there's nothing funny about the situation. "I'm tired of this. I'm going home."

"But we just got here less than an hour ago!" I reason.

He shrugs. "So what? It's not like certain people here would even notice my absence."

Just like that, he turns his back against me and exits the store without even looking back once.

I'm alone.

It takes a few minutes for the others to notice that Zoro is no longer next to me.

"What happened to him?" Chopper seems concerned. He's nervously twisting the bag full of beanies that he bought.

"Zoro … he left," I force myself to say. "I guess he got bored."

"Hm," Franky hums. "We were going to go watch that movie after this. Eh. Oh well! Maybe next time, right?"

Usopp nods in agreement. Brook is busy helping Robin with her bags while Sanji still flirts with Nami.

"Totally."

Nobody picks up on how false my voice sounds and the fact that I'm not smiling like I usually do. This is because I feel like a jerk.

"Whatever happened to the shitty swordsman?" Sanji muses as we're walking to the movie theatre.

"He's probably training again," Nami snorts. "Zoro gets carried away with athletics sometimes. Anyway, I think he just needs to take a chill pill and at least try to have some fun."

"Should we try to get him to go on a date?" Robin smiles.

Nami gasps. "OMG! That's a great idea! What do you guys think?"

We're silent. Brook offers a yawn.

"Actually, I think that would be an amazing idea, Robin-chan!" Sanji nearly swoons over her. "Then he would be less cranky and maybe he might actually dye his hair back to whatever color it was before he dyed it!"

Of course, that was meant to be a joke. Zoro's real hair color really is green and has been for as long as I've known him (long story, don't ask me how I know).

"Who would he even go out with?" Usopp asks.

"Well …" Nami trails off.

The truth is, Zoro doesn't seem like the kind of guy that would go on a date. Most of the time he's focused on training. When he's not training, he's usually sleeping or drinking sake. No offense, but If Zoro went on a date the whole thing would be so casual that his date would get bored and move on. Unless they were only dating him because of his looks or something like that.

She doesn't seem to know.

I change the topic because I know that Zoro isn't in the mood to pursue dates. "Are we going to watch The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part I or Big Hero 6?"

"Isn't that movie about r-robots?" Franky's eyes twinkle behind his sunglasses.

"Yeah! Me and Kaya watched it last week, but I'm willing to watch it again," Usopp said. Kaya is his longtime girlfriend and she sometimes hangs out with us whenever she's not occupied with school. "We really should watch it, even though it's supposed to be for little kids."

"Yes! No scary movies!" Chopper shudders as Brook starts to cry. "The trailer for Mockingjay Part I made Jennifer Lawrence look mean! And the guy who played Peeta looked scary!"

"I heard that the movie was inspired by Japanese culture. I love Tokyo, their fashions are so unique," Nami approves. "We're so watching it."

"I'll watch anything as long as Nami-swan wants to watch it!" Sanji yells.

Which is exactly why I found myself being one of the oldest people in a dark movie theatre that's mostly filled up with elementary school kids and preteens. To make it more enjoyable I bought a large popcorn with extra butter, an even bigger soda that might not require me to get a refill, and plenty of boxes of movie candy. I sit next to Robin because I know she won't be screaming the whole time.

Even as the movie starts, I'm still thinking about Zoro.


	5. Chapter 5

"This car," Marco slides a hand over the hood of the car I 'borrowed'. "Belongs to one of my colleagues. I don't think he'll mind, though."

We've decided to ditch the party early and go to his place. I feel a little dizzy from all the blood that was drained out of me. My stomach is starting to hurt and there's nothing I can do about it.

Once we're on the road, he gets straight to business.

"Alright. I know who you are," Marco peeks a glance at me through the corner of his eye. He's a good driver and he doesn't take his eyes off the road. "You're the Ace, the Ace who dated that princess, right?"

"Y-yeah."

"I don't care about that stuff. I bet somebody saw you steal this car, right, yoi?" Marco doesn't wait for my reply. "I can help you deal with any lawsuits you might get, which is highly unlikely. Whitebeard knows a lot of people in this area and everyone he knows are his pawns. Once a pawn of Whitebeard, always a pawn of Whitebeard."

"Who's Whitebeard?" I feel like I'm supposed to know this already.

"That's one of the things I hated about being a mortal the most. Nobody ever told you guys anything about the real world so whenever you encounter anything supernatural, you freak out about it and have all these theories to explain them," Marco laughs. "And don't get me started on all the vampire fandoms there is out there. Those are like the Sunday comics in the newspaper. Down-right hilarious. Kinda makes me want to write one of my own … not!"

I find nothing funny about it.

"Whitebeard is our leader. I'd like to tell you some more, but then I'd have to kill you," he winks at me. "I can't do that, can I?"

"Uh, no," I stammer. "I mean, yes! I mean, no. I don't … please, don't kill me."

The sadist grins. "Ace, you are so my bitch."

When we get there, I have no idea how to react. Why are we even here?

"I love this place," Marco says as stares up at a too-tall rollercoaster.

We're at an amusement park and he's oblivious to the fact that we must be the only people over eighteen inside the whole park that's not an adult accompanying a child.

"When you told me that we were going to have 'fun' I thought you meant that we were going to do something, well, way different than this," I mutter as I stuff my fists in the pockets of my jeans.

"Don't be a party-pooper," he teases. "We can do that stuff later. Look, this rollercoaster is the tallest ride on the entire East Coast."

That explains why the line to get on the rollercoaster must be at least half a mile long. We've been waiting for at least half an hour and the line hasn't even moved up more than two feet. The King of the Savannah–with it's lion theme–is obviously the ride to get on if you visit Phat Valley.

Roller coasters are okay and all, but it's gotten chiller than it was before. I couldn't wish for anything more than a jacket and another cup of coffee.

"Do we have to?"

"Please? For me?" Marco begs.

I sigh because I want to. "Oh, fine."

He hugs me in front of everybody. "You're my bae."

I have just been hugged my potential boyfriend and called 'poop' by the same person. Secretly, I'm looking forward to the ride more than I am other slang words derived from other languages.

Five minutes later, we've made stunning progress through the line. A full seven inches!

"This is going to take all night," I groan.

Marco is looking around the long line and his gaze is fixed on something. More like somebody. Out of the corner of my eye I see Marco motion to a man using his eyes. It's like a code, but the man understands what Marco is telling him. The man nods and smiles with his mouth closed.

"Hey–we should move up," Marco suggests.

"Are you out of your mind? The people in front of us will try to butcher us even if we stand next to them," I snort. Plus, fronting would look rude.

"No, it's different than that. It's cool with him. Besides, we're colleagues," Marco reasons.

"How many colleagues do you have? Do you all work for Whitebeard or something?" I need to know.

Marco nods. "Something like that. Izo and Haruta are also my colleagues."

He knows my friends? No wonder he was at the party. But how come we've never met? Something tells me that my friends–and even Marco–are hiding something from me about this Whitebeard guy. Right now would be a bad time to have a cow over that.

I dismiss these thoughts.

"Oh."

The people in front of us don't seem to mind Marco and I fronting them. There's a lazy smirk on his face while he escorts me near the front of the line, but his eyes are far from calm. They've deepened in color and disturb me.

"Hello Marco," the man greets Marco. He looks over at me. "And company."

"Yo. What's up, Jinbe?" Marco replies at the same time I said, "Hi."

The man––Jinbe–seems slightly wary of me. I wonder why.

"So Marco," he starts. "When Whitebeard said you could go out for the night he never said you could pick up friends along the way. Remember the last time when you did–"

Marco cuts Jinbe off. "That was ages ago. Things are different now. This is different."

What happened last time? Somebody who was with Marco … and by the way Jinbe said that, it didn't work out very well.

Jinbe almost glares at him. Then he reverts his gaze at me and thankfully, his face turns more inviting. "What's your name?"

"Ace," I squeak, because Jinbe has to be at least three feet taller than me. He's a giant. Besides, I don't want to attract too much attention to myself. "Nice to meet you, sir."

"Please, call me Jinbe. See Marco? This young man actually has some manners and decency to him," Jinbe slaps Marco on the back of his neck. Marco lets out a small yelp before hatefully staring up at the older man. "Damn rebel."

"Chill off, won't you?" Marco grumbled.

"Once you stop getting all these crazy clothes," Jinbe pinches the sleeve of Marco's shirt. "And stealing the family cars."

"Actually," I say. "That was me."

Jinbe makes a tsk-ing noise. "I'll believe that when Marco decides to get a normal haircut."

"Oh thanks," Marco's voice is dripping with sarcasm.

When we finally get to the front of the line Marco has perked up and Jinbe has run out of criticisms to say to him and positive comments about me.

"Marco slides up to the young woman who takes our tickets to get onto the ride. "I'm going to love this ride."

"I bet," she rolls her eyes after looking at him for three seconds. She takes our tickets and deposits them in the nearest trashcan. She goes back to her phone in no time.

"But not as much as I love your lips."

The girl immediately peeks up to look at him. "Um, thank you?" she blushes.

"I wonder who I have to thank for making you so pretty," Marco adds. Jinbe drags him away but not before he can wave to her.

Another person–a man–helps us get secured into the train. Marco sits next to me before Jinbe can so Jinbe is stuck sitting next to a little kid who looks like they've had too many sodas. Jinbe tries not to make a face.

"The King of the Savannah was built about a decade ago. The fastest you'll go is over one hundred miles per hour, up to four hundred feet in the air, and don't worry–it's absolutely safe as long as you don't fall," the man informs us. "Have fun and remember, those who don't scream deserve to be the King of the Savannah!"

"Oh boy! This is so sweet!" the kid sitting next to Jinbe exclaims. "Right mister? Hey! I'm talkin' to you! Why won't you reply? Are you scared? Cuz if you're going to pee in your pants, you should go back to preschool. My little sis says that this kid in her preschool peed his pants last week! That's SO gross! But that's not as the time that …"

"You going to scream?" Marco asks me to tune the kid out.

I laugh. "No way."

The ride starts and it's starts off calm. I imagine being a lion prowling through the African savannah and not finding prey. The prey appears and suddenly we're going too fast.

It isn't my first time riding a roller coaster–it's just my first time riding a roller coaster as fast as the King of the Savannah.

The kid sitting with Jinbe is as excited as Jinbe is turning green. Marco doesn't even notice this and continues to smile like an idiot. I don't know what kind of face I'm making, but I hope it's better than Jinbe's.

The roller coaster is starting to slope upwards and I've been on enough rides like this to know that we're going to make a steep fall and just about everybody is going to scream their heads off.

"Portgas!" Marco calls. I didn't even tell him my last name so I wonder whether he's actually a stalker or not. "Scared?"

"Me?" I try to sound more confident than I actually am. My stomach is starting to churn a little bit. "No."

"You sure?"

The ride starts sloping upwards.

"Yeah."

"If you get scared you could always just hold onto me," he flirts. "You know you want to."

"In your dreams," I have to think that he's a clown.

"Hey, mister! This is gonna be sweet, huh? It's my fifth time riding this thing today," the kid babbled. "I love coming on this thing! Don't you?"

"No," Jinbe is miserable. "Not at all."

I turn around to look at him. With an expression of general concern I say, "Are you going to be alright?"

"Yeah," he manages. "I think."

"I need pictures to show Billy and Steve how much fun they missed out on today. If you're going to barf can you at least drink the rest of my grape soda? That would look neat coming up!"

What kind of creep is he? Marco invades my mind.

He's just a kid. Sometimes kids say stupid stuff like that and since they're kids they can usually get away with it.

When I was a kid, I didn't do any of that bullshit. I couldn't.

I look over at him and raise an eyebrow.

Your incredulous face is irresistible.

Why not?

The other people on the ride scream in both joy and fear. The kid behind us laughs like a madman while I can faintly hear Jinbe trying to hold it all back.

Marco doesn't reply. In fact, he's looked away and is trying to appear to be clueless of what I'm asking him about.

Listen, I know we haven't known each other longer than a few hours, but I trust you. I let you suck my blood and take me all the way here without thinking of what could've happened. None of that did. Do you trust me?

He never bothered to answer me. Behind us, Jinbe had to just let it go.

"For realsies? I haven't even given you any grape soda yet!" the kid howls.


	6. Chapter 6

It looked like it was about to rain and Marco realized this as he stared up at the sky in hatred.

There is no way that I'll ever go back. Not even if I have to deal with crap this for the rest of my life.

Luckily, he had found himself in a much nicer alley than the one he had stayed in the night before. If the man on the other end of the alley stopped smoking and tried to molest him then maybe he could use the pocketknife that he had gone pick-pocketing for.

He sighed before throwing his head onto his knees. Last week it would've been to cover the areas of exposed skin from the holes in his jeans, but now it was just out of desperation.

You could say that Marco was an unlucky teenager. Since he could remember, he had been living in the same orphanage on the same street, with kids equally as morose as himself, and adults who didn't really care about them. Sure, they acted nice around other people, but this was just a hypocritical act to get higher pay.

He was by far one of the oldest minors to live in the orphanage. Nobody wanted to adopt an older child–people that adopted mostly adopted newborn babies or very young children, like infants. Babies screamed about some things, but teenagers screamed about everything.

You could say that he felt a twinge of jealousy each time he saw another child leaving the orphanage after being adopted. They would go to loving homes and be cared for by people who actually wanted them.

It had been almost two years since he had run away. The media had focused on his story for some time, but like most events, was soon forgotten. Now he was fourteen and still felt a void inside of him. Maybe it was the fact that he hadn't eaten in almost five days.

January was the coldest month in the city. The temperatures almost dropped below freezing each night due to the wind chill and it hadn't snowed. Yet.

Fingers shaking, he pulled a cigarette out of the box he kept around for casual purposes. He needed one even though he wasn't really supposed to be doing it. Smoking wouldn't give him extra warmth, but it would make him feel like he was warmer. One of the things about living on the streets was that things like tobacco, alcohol, and even drugs weren't that hard to obtain. Of course, Marco had no money to pay the dealer so he had to resort to other measures which he wasn't sure whether he should regret or not.

Life is bearable, for now. It could be worse. At least I haven't caught the flu or something yet.

Some time passes. Marco found himself in a subway station because a lot of people always passed through the station during the morning hours. He wasn't scared that somebody would recognize him because Marco was sure that he looked nothing like he used to look like. His appearance was the least of his worries.

He wasn't the one to beg for money. Begging was for the war veterans who had no place to live after serving their time in the army and mothers with children. Not an actual child–if you still counted him as one. Basically, Marco was still a minor. His motive behind it all? He was hungry.

Smiling always helped. Then the people who passed by wouldn't think that he wasn't worth giving some spare change to. The downside of this was that some might assume that he was just some bored teenager trying to get money for more drugs. He had also decided to remove the bandana that he usually used to cover the bottom part of his face: His mouth.

He slouched against a wall and held a can he had picked up on his way to the subways. The can was fairly old–you couldn't even tell what was even canned into it anymore because the label had long peeled off.

The first few people who passed by paid him no attention. They were the well-dressed types who instead of driving luxury cars down the street took the crowded subway to work. Both the men and women carried serious-looking briefcases with them and sometimes for variety, coffee cups. They were too good for him. Too good to give him even a glance.

You son-of-a-bitch.

He tried hard not to lose his calm. Marco took a peek at the nearest clock he saw. 6:45 AM. That means that I must've gotten at least six hours of sleep last night … A major improvement.

By the time it was seven 'o clock, he had only gotten a few cents and a reasonably large ball of lint that somebody had accidentally dropped into the can. Unless they thought lint was food then the chance of him eating that day would be slim.

Marco could do this. He sighed.

"I have no money to eat … Please help me … I'll repay you once I've found a place to live and a job, you. Please, even a few cents will help me. Oh–! Thank you, ma'am."

The women gave him another glance. "Your welcome, young man," she said with an edge to her voice as if she didn't really believe him. "Have a good day."

Still, this didn't stop her from adding a few more bills into his can.

Marco smiled to show his gratitude. "You too."

Things started to get better once he started exaggerating. He made sure not to make what he said too far-fetched or else people would start to get concerned and maybe call the police.

"I was kicked out of a car while hitchhiking and ran out of money. I can't call my parents who live on the other side of the country and would like some change to make a phone call, please."

$9.62. Not bad at all!

While Marco was greedily eyeing his loot he didn't notice the man who had made his way near him. The man had a disbelieving look on his face and was dressed in typical businessman attire.

"Young man, I believe you have enough money to make a phone call right there. Why do you need more?" the man asked him.

"Maybe I'm hungry," Marco replied defensively. "I was kicked out of the car two days ago and had to walk all the way from the side of the highway to where I am now. Don't you think I might be tired?"

The man laughed a great grand laugh and his long white mustache twitched. "Yes, but I can see it in your eyes that you're lying about something."

Marco's stomach flopped. Is it really that noticeable?

"Yeah right! Don't you have somewhere to be? Things better to do than to talk to me?"

"You make it sound as if you want me to leave you alone so you can go back to taking people's money," the man crossed his strong-looking arms across his chest. Although he was an older guy Marco could see that he was in much better condition than most older men were. Actually, the man was a little scary-looking due to his muscles and tall stature.

"Can't you just leave me alone?" Marco blurted.

Well, wasn't that blunt? The man will most likely report me and it'll be the end for me. To make matters worse, there's always the knife in my pocket ...

With a little more warmth in his eyes, the man said, "Son, I can tell that you're a lonely person and that's why you're so cold."

"Who do you think you are? Oprah?" he snorted. "Go away. You're weird! You could be a pedophile for all I know. What do you know about me anyway?"

The man with the mustache shook his head. "No. I'm not that kind of person! I just think that you're living on the streets."

Shit. FUCK.

Marco did not reply and his next movements were cautious. Slowly, he peeled off of the wall and made a run for it.

"Come back here!"

The man was shadier than a crazy cat lady. No, there was no way Marco could trust him. That would be like giving up and he had come too far to do that.


	7. Chapter 7

Hello! Fucking bastard, he's not going to give me a ride, Zoro thought to himself as he gritted his teeth together. Fists in pockets, he began to walk down the side of the road and hoped that nobody would try to run him over.

Still, this was better than being interrogated by Luffy. It was none of the younger man's business and personally, Zoro wasn't even sure about it yet. Whenever asked, he told them he was asexual to shut them up.

Sanji wasn't really his type. Sure, Sanji would never be caught dead unkempt and messy, but this was one of the reasons why they were so different. Plus, he was such a flirt whenever it came to girls. Why? Obviously, he was a straight guy. Unless …

Zoro tried to shrug it off. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. No. There was really no way that it could be true. The very thought gave him chills and he was ashamed that a darker side him would actually be relieved if Sanji was to come out as homosexual.

There was no way he could ever tell anybody these things.

He ended up taking the bus home. He had bad memories attached to riding them which was why he usually avoided taking the bus.

It happened years ago when he had just started the eighth grade at his junior high school. That was before he had moved into the area and met Luffy and his current group of friends. Although the kendo team was only for the students who attended the nearby high school, there was a few exceptions every year. Zoro had been one of them and so had the kendo instructor's own daughter, Kuina.

Kuina was one of the most confident and cockiest people he had ever known–sometimes, she annoyed him more than Sanji ever could. Not only was she in the grade above him, but she was much better than him. Everybody on the team was male and much older than the two of them, yet their skill could not match theirs. Since nobody else could defeat her, he felt that it was up to him to beat her. This turned out to be much harder than he thought it'd be.

"What the hell?" he mumbled one afternoon after they had finished battling. Like usual, Kuina had easily beat him and had her typical smug expression on her face. "How long have you been practicing?"

"Face it, Roronoa Zoro," she said proudly. Her skin glistened with sweat, but was a sign of her victory. "I'm better than you! Just say it already."

Zoro made at face at her as he gripped onto his wooden practice sword. One of the rules was that they couldn't use real weapons so nobody got hurt. He could think of ways to knock her out with the piece of wood, but realized that her quick-reflexes would stop his attack.

Kuina laughed and when she did, she smiled. "How many times have you been trying to beat me again? Like 2,000?"

He had been trying all year long to get her to give up. It was already early May and next year, she would start high school which meant that she'd most likely get even more serious with her kendo. Then how could he defeat her? Yes, he had fought with her about 2,000 times. There was no way he was going to admit it.

With a little more courage this time, he told her, "You bitch! Stop being so cocky, I bet you can't even fight with a real sword."

Kuina raised her blue eyebrows. "Oh yeah? It sounds like you want to fight me another time."

Zoro nodded. "Hell yes."

"Tomorrow, we'll sneak out of our houses and meet behind the school to battle with real swords. You can use any kind of sword as long as it's real," she paused and chuckled lightly. "Unless you can only fight with wooden swords."

"I'm bringing my own sword."

"Good. Don't chicken out, okay?"

He snorted. "Hell no."

He hurried his way down the empty street, his dark shadow dancing ahead of him. The night was warm, but the sun had long sunk below the horizon.

I will beat her once and for all. I have to! I will win, he reassured himself. Then the other part of him had to think, What if I get too nervous? What happens if one of us actually gets hurt during our fight? We can't just call 911 or something. What if that person is me?

There was nobody around to hear him cursing under his breath.

Zoro didn't live very far away from the local junior high school. Since the kendo team was mostly for the high schoolers, it was held at the high school. Usually, he walked to and from school everyday instead of taking the smelly, noisy school bus. He had never really tried walking to school in the middle of the night, especially on a school night. In fact, Zoro had never really tried sneaking out, either. He had no reason to sneak out anyway.

Zoro wondered whether Kuina had ever snuck out before. Outside of the kendo team, Zoro didn't really see Kuina during school hours. When he did happen to run into her, it was usually in the hallways where she was walking to one of her classes with her usual haughty expression on her face. Kuina was also always alone. He had never been one of the most popular kids in school, but Zoro knew that he wasn't a loner. He had a group of people who were more-or-less his friend–these people were basically his followers. Zoro didn't consider them to be his real friends. Actually, he thought that he had no real friends, except for the guy from the kendo team. Kuina didn't count because she had always been more of a rival toward him. Yet every time he saw her walking alone Zoro couldn't help but wonder how she was really feeling on the inside.

She didn't seem like the type of girl who would sneak out of her home once her dad was asleep. Kuina got good grades in school, was on the kendo team, and had often talked about getting a part-time job once she entered high school. Her plans were to not only be a great swordsman–or swordswoman–but to go to the college of her choice and get a well-paying job. Romance didn't interest her and unlike most of the girls her age, she had never really thought about pursuing romantic relationships with others. Kuina was strange that way.

"You're so different from the other girls," Zoro was telling her one day after he had gotten beaten in kendo. He wasn't in a good mood and Kuina had really annoyed him that day. "Why are so so weird? Shouldn't you be interested in things like makeup, clothes, and boys? You may be good at kendo, but don't you think kendo is more of a boy kind of thing?"

The two of them were leaning on the side of the high school building, where the two of them hung out after kendo practice. The air was cold, the sky gray–maybe it would snow soon. Vapor came out of his mouth as he spoke and after he was done talking, Zoro realized how wrong what he had said sounded.

"Why do you even care?" Kuina kept her voice calm. She was as cool as a cucumber about the situation. If she wanted to, she could have started to fight him with her practice sword, but she didn't. "Most girls like to follow trends, but I follow my dreams. Just because society wants me to act a certain way doesn't mean that I'm going to conform."

At that moment, Zoro felt unbelievably ignorant. How could he think that Kuina could ever like any of that stuff? There was no way she could change–the girly image just wasn't ever going to be associated with her.

To his surprise, she also laughed.

"You're also not like most boys your age. I mean, you're more mature than most eighth graders are and also don't seem to care what people think of you," Kuina paused thoughtfully. "I like that, but there's something about you that's unsettling."

It got very quiet after she said this. Finally, Zoro managed to ask, "What do you mean?"

She sighed. "Zoro, you're not good at expressing your emotions, are you?"

He had no idea how to answer her. "What does that have to do with anything?" Zoro protested.

"You take everything that's vented up inside out during kendo practice. Kendo is not only a lifestyle choice and a hobby, but a way to let your mind wander away from all your troubles," she explained. "I know you have problems and although you've never really told me about them, I can just tell that there's something that you'd rather not talk about."

He shook his head. "You really are demented."

Kuina glanced at her watch. "I should get going now. My dad must've gotten home ages ago and I don't have a good excuse to tell him why I'm late."

"You lie to your dad?" Zoro was sort of impressed, but also shocked to hear that a goody two-shoes like her would do anything remotely related to lying.

"There's a lot of things that you don't know about me," Kuina claimed. "Things you'd never imagine."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he demanded.

"Listen, I want to see you smiling sometime soon. Okay?"

He didn't know why she had changed the topic that day.

Back in reality, Zoro stood in the spot where Kuina had wanted them to meet up at. She was nowhere in sight.

"Damn it! You bitch … Where are you?"

Great, now I'm even talking to myself. Some of her craziness has really worn off on me or something.

When he rounded the corner of the building, he tried not to have a heart attack when he saw her. Kuina had her sword at her side and had a fierce expression on her face. She was listening to music on her iPod.

Zoro wasn't even sure that she had seen him. Then it hit him: What if she had heard him?

Before he had the chance to say anything, she spoke first.

"You're so nervous, you've started talking to yourself," Kuina said. She took her earbuds out of her ears and have him a critical look. "Don't worry. I'll go easy on you, but only because you're my friend."

Thanks? I guess.

He pretended not to hear this. "Are we going to start fighting or what?"

"I know you're trying to trick me, Roronoa Zoro," she accused. "You can stop right now."

"What?" Zoro exclaimed. He felt the veins popping out of his neck. Sure, he wasn't so sure that he'd win against her, but that didn't mean he'd play tricks on her. "You've gone mad."

"I know what you're doing and would appreciate it if you'd just stop," Kuina took a step away from him. Her eyes looked sad and her expression somber. "Why are you doing this?"

"Listen, I have no idea why the crap you think I'm trying to trick you or play a joke on you or whatever, but I'm not–" Zoro stopped himself as he realized that Kuina wasn't standing in front of him anymore. A sharp, biting sensation in his right shoulder made his breathing hault. "Hell no."

"You're going to let a girl beat you again?"

Like this, their fight began.

Zoro was on a hilltop in an exposed part of the forest. He was sure that Kuina hadn't followed him there, but he couldn't be so sure. They had been fighting for almost an hour now and he wasn't ready to give up yet. Zoro felt very tired and just needed a moment to relax.

The moon was overhead and seemed to be glaring it's light onto him. It was like the moon was scolding him about stopping during a battle and running away from Kuina. Or maybe the moon was lighting his way to victory.

Anyway, an advantage of being on a hill was that he could see Kuina coming from the distance. On the other hand, she could see him, too.

With his hands on his swords, Zoro kept his eyes glued on his surroundings. Self-consciously, he wiped away some sweat from his forehead to keep it from dripping into his eyes.

At last, she found him.

"Our fight isn't over yet! I'll defeat you so there's nothing in my way of fulfilling my dreams," she growled, charging up the hill while viciously gripping onto her sword. "I will become the world's greatest swordsman!"

Okay, no. That's so not cool.

"No way. We all know that I'm going to grow up and be the world's greatest swordsman," Zoro squinted. Kuina stopped running.

"Excuse me? Since when have you been wanting to the the world's number one?" Kuina demanded to know.

"Since forever. Since I started getting into kendo when I was a young kid. You know, it's strange that we both thought the same thing."

"There can't be two best swordsmen," she pointed out. "One of us has to win this thing."

He wasn't even sure whether he'd regret saying, "It's most likely going to be you, Kuina."

Her eyes widened. "Why do you think that?" Kuina asked, with a bit of suspicion in her voice.

Why?

"You've beaten me over a thousand times! You've been into kendo for longer than I have and your dad probably teaches you all these special techniques!" Zoro yelled. Then he ran his hands through his hair and sat down on the grass.

He continued, "You're respected by everybody and even though you're a wierd girl, that's not always a bad thing. It also helps that nobody ever seems to get in your way so you don't really give a fuck about all the haters. Unlike me, your ego is over-inflated which only makes you kind of intimidating. Plus, you're older. Do you want to know what you'll be doing in five years? Studying at the best university in the country–maybe even the world–while balancing international kendo meets. Do you want to know what I'll be doing? I'm most likely going to be sitting in a small-town college that nobody has ever even heard of and regretting on some random porch."

It was like a large weight had just been taken off his shoulders after he revealed this information to her. Kuina was really a great person and had a brighter future than anybody he knew. Although what he said wouldn't make him look forward to tomorrow, it might make her feel better.

She shook her head. "No."

He gawked at her. "What do you mean?"

"I'm a girl," Kuina reminded him.

Zoro gave her a look. "Listen, it's not like I called you a man or something. Of course, you're a girl!"

"Exactly," her voice sounded strangled. Kuina sighed, sitting down on the grass near him. "I'm a girl and everybody knows that girls have always never been treated as equally as men, especially in male-dominated jobs or sports, like kendo."

"There's women kendo, too."

"Yeah, but it's not the same! Why does there always have to be the gender barrier in sports anyway? If a girl can play football like the boys can, than she should be able to play. What if a boy is really good at playing volleyball, but they reject him just because volleyball is usually considered to be a female sport?" Kuina questioned. "It's really not the same. I may end up being the best female in the world, but what if I went against the best male kendo athlete in the world."

"You'd beat him," he encouraged. "Like you always beat every other guy."

Kuina's eyes glistened over with moisture. "Things will change and in the future, I might not even be able to be in kendo anymore. My dad says that males usually outgrow females in height, weight, and strength which kind of gives them an advantage in kendo. He also told me to stop doing kendo right now, while I'm still young. Sure, skill is another factor, but what if the other factors played a bigger role in that kendo match? Nobody will want to fight against me in the future–again, because of my gender. Nobody wants to hurt girls."

Why are you telling me these things? This was awkward for him and it was awkward because some of what she was saying was actually true.

"I'm still not getting what you're trying to tell me," Zoro acted dumb. Honestly, he wanted to know what her point was. "It doesn't make much sense."

"Yes, yes it does. It makes so much sense because it's just reality. You're luckier than you think you are."

"No. I don't think so …"

"You're extremely ungrateful," she informed him. Her voice cracked. "You know that?"

Zoro thought of a mean retort, but he didn't say it. Instead, he kept staring at her with a solid expression on his face.

"Our fight is over. You win," he forfeited. "You're the winner."

"You're going to get stronger than me," Kuina was practically bawling now. "One day, you're going to beat me."

"I said, you win. Look at all these scratches and shit on my body. It's going to take ages for all of it to heal, but I don't care. You've beat me up enough and I'm not sure what I'm going to tell everybody tomorrow."

Zoro didn't start to get emotional whenever he saw somebody start to cry, but this time he couldn't help but feel an aching feeling as he saw tears roll down her face.

"One day, you're going to beat me and eventually become the world's greatest swordsman! Just because you're a man. Do you want to know what I'll be doing in five years? Wondering how stupid I was going through all these years of kendo only to confess that in the end, none of it even mattered."

He had no idea what to say to her. All Zoro could do was look away as he heard her muffled cries, wheezes, and hiccups. The breeze ruffled at his hair and made up for his silence.

Thinking about it, he really did take his gender for granted. Boys could get away with things girls couldn't like taking their shirts off at the beach or join the army without anybody giving them second glances. They could be in kendo and not fear that one day, they might not be able to continue with it. Things like this would make girls like Kuina feel very bad about themselves and be mad at the world. Mad at the world for making them the gender they were and most likely casting them to a predictable future life as a housewife.

What had her dad told her? "My dad says that males usually outgrow females in height, weight, and strength which kind of gives them an advantage in kendo. He also told me to stop doing kendo, while I'm young.

Her dad encouraged her to stop doing something she loved doing just because she was female and he didn't really believe in her. Kuina had briefly mentioned things about what kind of relationship she had with her dad and some of the things she had said, their relationship seemed rocky. It made Zoro rethink what he thought of her dad, but this didn't get in the way of him not going to kendo practices. Actually, he ignored things like this and found ways to block them out as if nothing was wrong.

"I can't tell anybody these things without them thinking that there's something wrong with me. There's a lot of things that just aren't okay … I'm no better than the emo kids who you see crying in a corner about how much their life sucks," Kuina ranted. "Like any of them realize how much women seen as inferior, even in today's modern society. You probably think I'm a freak right now."

"It's not like that. Most so-called emo kids don't even have actual problems to whine about, but they made pretentious music MTV gobbled up. Anyway, that's not the point. The point is that you're not a bad person and your dad can screw off because he's just jealous of you," he claimed. "I think that's why he's been telling you these things. He's afraid that you'll surpass him and be greater than he could ever be."

She sniffled. "I doubt it, but thanks. I don't know why he doesn't like me that much. Do you think it's because my mom died while giving birth to me? I never knew her. Maybe my dad's angry at me and he blames me for her death."

"Possibly," he vaguely remembered her mentioning her mom at one point or time when he had asked. She ominously hinted that she was never really around and Zoro got the feeling she'd rather not talk about it so he stopped asking questions. "I don't know and asking doesn't really seem like a great idea, either. I think the best thing you can do is continue training no matter what he says. Then, when you're really rich and famous, you can prove him wrong."

Kuina sort of smiled. "You really think I can do that?"

"You're the most determined person I know. Of course, I do," he gently brushed away her tears with his fingertips, careful not to scratch her or anything. "I believe in you and want you to become the world's greatest swordsman even if it means that my wishes will go unfulfilled. Who knows? I can become a fisherman–fishing isn't that bad."

"Roronoa Zoro," she began. Kuina sounded aggravated. "You're the most selfless person I know, yet you're still not smiling!"

This comment took him off guard. "Maybe I don't like to smile. Just because I don't smile a lot doesn't mean that I never smile."

"If I kissed you, would you smile? Boys always get the dumbest grins on their faces whenever they kiss girls, especially if it's their first kiss," Kuina rolled her eyes.

"Are you implying that you think I haven't had my first kiss yet?" Zoro asked more bashfully than he wanted to.

She crossed her arms across her chest. Her chest, Zoro noticed, was larger than he remembered it being just a while ago. At least he lips looked inviting–the fleshy pink color pale, the surface soft.

Symptoms of nokissaphobia: imaging that average body parts like lips are meant for kissing. Images of wild makeout scenes flash through your head and then the kissing gets to something else. No–I think it's just hormones.

The more he tried to shove these thoughts out of his head, the better the whole thing sounded to him. Kuina was a girl a year older than him who was hinting that she'd like to kiss him just to see him smile.

"Pretty much," her dark eyes locked onto his own and Zoro felt his face gain color. She had very nice eyes, he noticed. "I haven't been kissed before and wouldn't mind if we shared a kiss. I mean, sharing a first kiss with a friend is better than having it with some hooker, right?"

The last time he checked, 'friends' didn't kiss with eachother. Then things could get really awkward between the two people or maybe they could start going out, but break up and ruin their friendship forever. Things like that were tricky in the sense that the two people couldn't have any regrets about anything.

He nodded. "We have to live life like there's no tomorrow. Who knows? The Earth could blow up in five minutes and we neither one of us would've became the world's greatest swordsman, but at least we would've been able to have our first kiss together. Why not?"

"It's not everyday that you actually talk about kissing somebody before you actually do it," Kuina guffawed. "More boys need to be like you."

"So, are we going to do it now?"

"Why not? I've watched enough movies to know that you have to do this crazy tilt thing with your head or whatever when you kiss somebody or else your head will crash with the other person's. Then, there's those girls who pucker their lips together like they ate something really sour, but I think that's dumb."

"There's rules to this stuff?" Zoro frowned. "Everytime you see people kiss, they usually don't say anything about it. They just give each other this look that asks for it."

"Oh," he could tell that she was trying hard not to laugh again. "What does that look even look like anyway?"

"Do you want me to give you that look?" he teased.

Her expression became one of pleasure. Then, she came closer to him, and she didn't even have to move much. Zoro hadn't realized how close they had been sitting until then, but this didn't disturb him. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and Zoro assumed that putting one hand on her waist might've been a good idea. His other hand went on the side of her face, just so his palm could feel the warmth that radiated from her. Kuina had skin like a porcelain doll, and he loved how her hair was so soft.

'Soft' was a word that could've described what happened next. His mouth moved over hers, and their meeting was cautious, yet sweet. A part of him was being liberated, and it felt as if the entire world around them had stopped–even the breezes that made chill bumps rise on his skin. Zoro wanted to stay like that forever, but he knew that all good things had to come to an end.

Later that night, Zoro couldn't sleep. With his eyes closed, he let the breezes hit his skin, and this time, he didn't feel quite as cold. Actually, he was certain that he was even smiling.

When he got to school the next day, Zoro was late. He had overslept, and woke up almost two hours into the school day. His parents were probably already at work, an hadn't noticed that he was still asleep.

He threw a hoodie over his head, and slid his feet into the first pair of shoes that he found lying around on his bedroom floor. Zoro decided that changing into another pair of jeans when the pair that he had gone to sleep with were still clean was a waste of time. The green-haired teenager slung his bookbag over his shoulder, and darted out the door.

He didn't stop running on his way to school, not even once.

The school was dreadfully silent when he got there, and he took this as a bad sign. First period was technically over by now, and this meant that everybody should've been heading to their next class. When he was walking down the main hallway, Zoro could've sworn that a few people were giving him careful, measured looks. They weren't glaring at him–the looks were brief, and full of respect with touches of sympathy to them.

Freaks. Zoro turned the other way, and continued to walk to his second period, which was English.

Besides the occasional stragglers, the hallways were free of all students, and teachers. Normally, the halls were crowded, and noisy at this hour. The smell of coffee, and too much perfume or cologne was always present–somebody always put too much of it on. Today, there was none of this. If he wasn't mistaken, Zoro saw a teacher with their head ducked low. The woman's makeup was running down her face as she was crying.

What was going on?

Seeing that nobody was in a rush he took his time, and slowed his fast walking into a casual troll. Zoro entered the office, but he wasn't prepared for what he saw.

The first thing he saw was several teachers that looked like they were having a bad day. Zoro could tell they weren't angry, but extremely morose. Normally, the secretary would be gossiping with the other teachers, but today she was as quiet as a mouse. The phone at the desk wasn't even ringing today, and not a singe paper could be heard being printed. If somebody dropped a pin in the office, Zoro was sure that he could've heard it. The office was that silent.

Second, his parents were there. They were sitting down on one of the couches, and Zoro saw that his mother's face was red, and puffy. His dad looked on with a stern expression on his face, but Zoro knew something was bothering him. He was afraid to call out to them–afraid that if he broke the silence, that the few students who were in the office would start bawling even harder.

Finally, there was the Crisis Response Team, who were the only people who didn't look like they needed a hug in the room. He had watched enough TV shows, and movies to know that if a Crisis Response Team showed up at a school, that something must've gone terribly wrong.

Usually, it meant that somebody had just died.

After they had made their way out of the woods, they couldn't stop looking at each other as they started to walk home.

"You're probably the closest thing that I've ever had to a best friend," Kuina told him. "This means a lot to me."

"No problem," he paused. Zoro was sure that Kuina could keep secrets. "I'm not a very sociable person. I'm not really good with this whole conversation stuff, and I don't care about fitting into any of the cliques or whatever. You could say I'm sort of a loner."

"There's nothing wrong with that. Silence can mean anything, and sometimes not in a bad way."

They didn't talk much for a few minutes.

"Listen," Zoro started, because he had wanted to talk about this for some time. "We have the same lunch together, yet we've never actually sat at the same table together. Who cares what everybody else thinks? Mixed-gender tables rock. Do you want to sit with me, and the guys tomorrow at lunch? I can save you a seat."

"Seriously?" she sounded disbelieving. "Gosh, I'm not even sure what to say. Will you take 'sure' as an answer?"

Zoro could only chuckle. "Sure. Why not?"

By this time, they approached her house. All the lights were off, and Zoro took this as a good sign. There was no way she could get in trouble for sneaking out. Zoro felt glad that he didn't get her in trouble, and have to lie to his sensei.

She followed. Zoro could get used to her laugh. Not only her laughter, but also her smiles. "Sure."

He let his fingers brush against her own. He wished that he could memorize every detail about her hand, and how good it felt against his skin. Eventually, he let go.

"So, it's decided. I'll remember to save you a sit at lunch tomorrow, okay?"

Zoro knew what she was going to say next:

"Sure."

"See you at school tomorrow!" his reply couldn't have been cheerier.

For the first time in his life, Zoro felt fully satisfied. Things like being snubbed by the preps, and being one of the youngest–and shortest–kids on the kendo team didn't matter anymore. Anyway, he could still beat all of their butts. He had Kuina, and Kuina had him. Kuina was the only person he could talk to without feeling like he had to do much to please, and the only person he could trust with thing like his thoughts. He was the only person Kuina could vent out with, but he didn't mind. By doing that, Zoro had gotten to know who she really was, and recognize that she was more than just a girl with a high self-esteem. In reality, that wasn't her. Kuina just acted that way to appear to be confident, so nobody would suspect her insecurities, and troubles.

Kuina was his friend.

"Zoro?"

"Yeah?" he glanced at her over his shoulder. He had already started to walk away from her, mostly because he also wanted to get home, and try to fall asleep. What could he possibly want from him?

Kuina didn't hesitate when she said, "I love you."

Zoro didn't realize that he hugged her until after he had done it. He had done it without even thinking about it–he didn't know why. What he did know was that she actually cared.

"Goodnight, Kuina," he whispered.

"Goodnight, Zoro," she murmured back. Their embrace ended, and she scurried to the door of her house.

His mind was racing. Zoro knew that he had the courage to say something else, something quick. Something that he wouldn't regret.

"Kuina?"

"Yeah?" her voice was small, yet hopeful.

Zoro knew what he wanted to say, and mostly because he felt like it was the right time to say it. "I love you, too."

Zoro knew that he would never forget the timeless grin she flashed at him before waving goodbye to him, and disappearing inside her house.

Suddenly, Zoro didn't feel so alone, either.

Nobody had to tell Zoro anything. He couldn't let anybody see his face, or let anybody know what he was thinking. He darted away from the scene just as his parents peeled away from the couches.

Kuina. He hadn't seen Kuina.

One thing that the teachers never teach you is how to deal with loss. If you're a sore loser, and happen to lose a game, the teachers lecture you about the importance of being a team player. If you happen to lose your favorite hoodie at school you feel angry, and want somebody to blame. If something got broken, and couldn't be put back together, you may get a replacement. Deep down, you know that it's not as good as the original. They teach you how to deal with the simple losses–the ones that don't really teachers or your parents never talked about how to deal with loss. The subject itself is a taboo.

Kuina. Kuina had died, and although he didn't know how, Zoro just knew that she was no longer alive. To make matters worse, she was still a child at the time of her death. Kuina hadn't been able to accomplish any of her dreams–the ones she had spent hours discussing with him as they laid on their backs, and stared up at the endless sky. She never lived to prove the world wrong, and to make her impression on the word.

People were crying about it. Most of them probably didn't even know her, and some of them may have even bullied her before. Yet, they had the nerve to break down, and cry about it as if they had been by her side through difficult times. They disgusted him, and made his stomach feel sick.

The thought that there was nothing he could do to bring her back made him feel even worse.

He didn't know where he was running. The wind hit him in his face, and Zoro's eyes burned uncontrollably. Nobody was shouting after him–there was no point in doing so.

The last thing he remembered was falling on something, and hitting his head on the floor. The impact caused him to wince, but he didn't complain. Zoro couldn't bring himself into doing that, but he couldn't bring himself to his feet, either.

Zoro's breathing was heavy, and he felt light-headed. He used his arms in an effort to try to get up. Suddenly, he felt didn't feel so good, and his eyes widened.

No.

A horrible taste came into his mouth, and he opened his mouth. He wasn't sure whether it was to yell or release the vomit. Either way, it didn't matter as his vomit made it's way onto the floor, and right under him.

"Zoro! Zoro, are you okay?" his parents had caught up with him by this time.

Zoro didn't look up at them. He could barely breathe. "I'm fucking fine."

His parents didn't like it whenever he cussed, but this time, they didn't say anything about it.

Instead, his dad said, "I'm sorry, Zoro."

That was the best thing his dad could say to him. There wasn't many other things that he could say to his son. Zoro continued to release abnormal amounts of fluid, and his mom put her hand on his shoulder.

"We're going to take you back home. You shouldn't stay at school when you're not feeling good," there was too much pity in her voice, and Zoro hated this. "You can stay home from school for as long as you feel like you should. It's okay. I'll call in, and say that I'm taking some days off of work."

His mom didn't get paid whenever she took days off of work, which was why she rarely ever missed work. The last time she had missed work was when he was very young–he was six when she had a bad cold. Zoro had made a card for her at school during free time, and decorated it with his then-sloppy handwriting, in crayon. When he gave it to her, she gave him a kiss on the top of his head, and claimed that she was already feeling much better. She went back to work four days after that.

"Mom–"

"I will. It's okay."

"Mom, I can take care of myself."

She pursed her lips.

They ended up taking the bus back home.


	8. Chapter 8

Zoro found himself staring at the ceiling of his bedroom, and he was lying on his bed with his shirt off. He had been home for four days, and didn't feel the desire to want to go back to school due to several reasons. Actually, he couldn't bring himself to do a lot of things.

The day that he had found out about Kuina's death, his parents had taken him home, where his mom helped clean him up. His dad had gone back to work, and Zoro didn't blame him. After all, who wanted to be around him? He wasn't the most approachable person at that time. Zoro didn't stop throwing up until a few hours later, and he felt bad that he had to take another shower. That night, he wasn't sleepy at all.

Two days later, he showed some improvement. His skin had regained some of it's original color, and the taste in his mouth had gone away. However, there was a headache that refused to go away, and whenever his mom wasn't looking, he snuck a few pills. The pills weren't working or he wasn't taking enough, so he stopped taking them.

"See mom? I'm okay," Zoro faked something that could come off as a smile. "You can go back to work now."

"Are you sure? Do you know where all the medications are?"

Well, after taking at least a dozen pills …

"Yes, mom."

"If something were to go wrong, would you know who to call? And in what order?"

There is no way I'm going to throw a party or some crazy shit like that. As for cooking, I suck, and there's no way I'm even going to try. I'd start a fire.

"You or dad first. Then the trusted relatives, and neighbors."

"Good. Do you remember our emergency plans? What to do if an earthquake happens? Where the nearest bomb shelter is?"

This is going too far. Geesh, Mom, I know you love me, and everything, but I don't think an earthquake has ever even happened in this area before. What are the chances that we'd get bombed anyway?

"Yes, mom."

"Okay," she still sounded a little concerned. Maybe his smile worked. Hesitantly, she opened the door, and let herself out. "I'll be back later. If you need anything–even if you just want to talk–just call me. Bye, honey."

"Bye mom, see you later."

Zoro watched his mom's car pull out of the garage, and out onto the street. She did this very slowly, slower than usual. His eyes moved along where the car did, and he kept looking out the window until the car was out of sight.

The moment she was gone, Zoro went back upstairs to his room. He sat on the floor as his favorite songs played on his music player. He wasn't much of a music-person, but he did have a few songs he listened to every once in a while. It was none of the generic music that you could faintly hear coming from most kids' earbuds at school. Instead, it was the music that he had grown up listening to–all the classic rock songs that his parents had grown up listening to. They always played classic rock in the car, and the songs had sort of stayed with him during his whole life.

He also wasn't much of a reader, but there wasn't much to do around his house. He found himself staring at the cover of the first novel from his very small book collection: the Perks of Being a Wallflower. When he was nine, some of his relatives had come to visit them for a few weeks over summer vacation. His aunt, and uncle were middle-aged, but their two daughters were young teenagers. There wasn't much that he had in common with his cousins, as they talked about 'big kid' topics that he couldn't really understand much. Zoro's cousins wore makeup even though they didn't need any, and they often talked about other people–bad things.

He never looked forward to their visits, and that time wasn't any different. His older cousin was talking with the grown-ups about her college plans, but his younger cousin had been forced to go into his room so they could play whatever game Zoro insisted that they play. He had pulled out all of his board games while she pulled a hardback novel out of her large purse. She hadn't looked up from the novel, and he was starting to get so desperate that he didn't care about the board games anymore

"Don't you want to play Side-and-Go-Seek?" he begged her. "If you want, you can even hide first while I count."

His cousin gave him a critical look. "How old are you again? I'm fourteen, and playing that kind of thing is like, so fourth-grade. Can't you see I'm reading a book?"

"I know that's a book. I started reading chapter books before a lot of the other kids in my first grade class did. What book is it?" he asked. "It doesn't look very long. Maybe I could even read it."

When he tried to glance at the pages, she slammed the book shut.

"What do you think you're doing?" she squawked. "This book isn't a kiddie book."

"Is it one of those nasty books about kissing? Is it scary?" Zoro questioned. "I like books like Goosebumps, but I don't think they're very scary. Still, they're pretty fun to read."

She shook her head. "It's more serious than Goosebumps. It's about this dude who starts high school."

Zoro was disappointed that the book was probably very boring. There was a lot of books out there with that same plot! What made it so different that his cousin couldn't stop reading.

"I'll tell you what it's about, but only if you promise not to tell your parents," her voice lowered down to a whisper. Zoro leaned in. This sounded exciting. "My own parents have like, no idea that I'm even reading the book, either. They'd kill me if they found out. The book is even banned at some schools."

"Is it that bad?"

She shook her head. "Not really. If you think about it, the high school that the kid goes to is a lot like the one that my sister and I got to. The book is pretty realistic, and some of the things are relatable. I don't know why they'd ban it in schools–well, maybe I do. For starters, two people that were close to the main character died."

He was taken back. "Died?"

Things like that never happened in the books that he had read, not even the ones that were supposed to be scary. Death was such an off-limits topic, and it wasn't something that you were supposed to joke about. He couldn't imagine having a friend, or an adult that was dear to him, die on him.

"Yeah. Charlie's friend died, and so did his favorite aunt. Anyway, he's still pretty sad about it when he starts high school. Then, he meets these step-siblings, who are the coolest things since the Smiths. They become friends, and all of a sudden, Charlie meets their other friends. He ends up going to all these parties, and there's even drugs at the parties. People also have sex a lot–somebody even gets pregnant! The book is mostly about the ups and downs of high school, and growing main character is observant, and stuff."

"Is that a good thing?" Zoro tilted his head in interest. The book sounded interesting–though some of the concepts were shrouded like mystery, and he couldn't understand why Charlie would go to parties where there was drugs. "Is being observant a good thing?"

She sort of grinned. "I guess so. It helped make his narration creative in it's own way."

"Oh …" he trailed off. "Am I observant?"

At first, his cousin didn't know what to say. Her face got screwed up, and he could tell she was thinking hard. Finally, she replied by saying, "Somewhat."

He sat down next to her. "May I please read your book once you're done with it? It sounds way better than the stuff they make us read for school. I mean, your book sounds neat."

"I don't think that you would know what some of the words mean," she admitted. "I also think it might be a bit too mature for you to handle. They use curse words in the book."

He crossed his arms. "When my mom stubbed her toe against a door once, she said a bad word that I'm not allowed to say. Another time, my dad forgot to pay a bill on time, so he said the same bad word. Then, when we were watching TV one night, somebody said a word that I didn't know the meaning of. I'd never heard it before, so I repeated it, and asked what it meant. My parents grounded me for weeks! That's why I know it was a bad word. Curse words are everywhere, but they aren't very nice to say."

"Everybody is perverted," she blushed. "I lost track of all the sex-related things in it."

Zoro sighed. "Can I read it when I'm older?"

She ruffled his short green hair. "Why not? You'll understand the book by the time you're around my age," she handed the book to him. "You can have it, as long as you promise to hide it from your parents. Besides, I've read it a million times before."

He stared down at the novel in total awe. "Thank you! I promise that I'll hide it. I'll hide it well, and read it when I understand what's in the book."

"I bet you will."

That was one of the last times his aunt, uncle, and cousins had visited them. His older cousin had gotten into the college of her choice after her senior year, but his younger cousin was a different case. She had gotten funky piercings, and swore that she'd never eat another piece of meat in her life. She also started smoking–it didn't affect her grades, but it affected the way she acted toward her parents.

"They're threatening to send me to a military school," she told him. "I can't believe it."

He frowned. That doesn't sound very pleasant.

"Why?"

That visit had been just a few months after the time she had given him her book. They were sitting not too far away from the spot they had sat in last time, but only this time, she was sitting down on his bed, and looking dramatic.

"They think that my new friends are a bad influence on me. They even think that this boy who's in our group has a crush on me, just because he was one of the boys that I invited to the party," she sighed. "We're just friends! My parents need to chill. It's not like I'm going to drop out of school."

One month later, they did send her to a military school. Her parents had gotten angry with her after she was caught kissing a boy in the school parking lot by the principal. The boy was the same boy who her parents thought had a crush on her, and it turned out he did. Zoro found this information out when he overheard his aunt talking to his mom on the phone on afternoon, when he was supposed to be doing his homework. His aunt was saying curse words, and she hadn't even stubbed her toe.

They never visited them ever again. His cousin was in military school for about a year, until they pulled her out. After going through his mom's phone, he found out that his cousin had lost her piercings, and desire for smoking. Not only this, but also her crush. She attended an all-girls school before getting a scholarship for a school out of state. This was something she had wanted to do even before she was sent away.

She had ranted how she wanted to attend a nice university–a place where it was always warm, and a place with a local music scene. Somewhere that was so far away from her family that she couldn't drive back home on the weekends–this was what she wanted to do. That's exactly what she did.

Zoro had forgotten about the book ages ago, and this was mostly due to the fact that he didn't have time to read it. He wiped the dust off the cover, and began to read.

His first impression was that the book was going to be very depressing. He felt that he was going to throw up again when he read about Michael's suicide. More death–just what he wanted. He kept on reading, and learned that Charlie wasn't like most of the kids at his school, and was sort of a loner.

This Charlie kid sure is something.

Charlie was not only confused about the people around him, but he was confused about the whole world. If Charlie was real, Zoro could imagine the two of them getting along fairly well, despite the fact that Charlie was a shy boy. The two of them sat back at the edge of the world while watching all of the action, and liked to stay there. Too bad that once something happened, they were dragged back out, and into the dreaded center of the Earth.

The book was one of the first that he could connect to, and it didn't feel like he was forcing himself to read it. At school, the only reason he stayed awake during English class was because the class had always been easy for him. Besides this, the class was a total snoozefest. However, the reading lists were extremely outdated, and hadn't been updated since the 1970's.

Near the end of Part One, a certain section of the book caught his eye:

Anyway, Patrick started driving really fast, and just before we got to the tunnel, Sam stood up, and the wind turned her dress into ocean waves. When we hit the tunnel, all the sound got scooped up into a vacuum, and it was replaced by a song on the tape player. A beautiful song called "Landslide." When we got out of the tunnel, Sam screamed this really fun scream, and there it was. Downtown. Lights on buildings and everything that makes you wonder. Sam sat down and started laughing. Patrick started laughing. I started laughing.

And in that moment, I swear we were infinite.

It took him awhile to understand what Charlie meant by feeling 'infinite'. Feeling infinite was the feeling that you got when you felt liberated from all your troubles, and you feel high up in the sky where nobody can pull you down, and tell you that you can't. Which lead him into thinking about Kuina, and the last night they spent with eachother. How good he felt, and how it felt nice to be around her. Now, Kuina was gone, and he could never be with her again.

Zoro looked down at the rest of the city from the roof of his building. The cars looked like little ants from that distance, but the noise wasn't gone, even when it was past midnight.

A crazy idea lurked in the back of his head, and he wasn't very sure whether it'd work or not. Would they even be awake at his hour?

He decided to take a risk, and forgot about the consequences.

Zoro: Hey Sanji.

Yes, he actually called the blonde by his real name. Zoro obviously knew that was his real name, but he had rarely ever referred to him by his real name. Now, he had something to talk about with Sanji.

It took awhile, but the other man happened to reply.

Sanji: Hello. You just woke me up. Don't you think it's a little too late?

Zoro grinned. Sanji seemed to be in a good mood.

Zoro: No, not really. Anyway, I just want to talk.

Sanji: How vague. Care to clarify a bit?

Should I really do this? Zoro found himself thumbing the following message:

I noticed how spacey Luffy seemed today. I feel bad about the whole Ace and Vivi thing.

Sanji: Me too. I tried to do whatever I could to make him feel better, but after you left, he was still kind of out. I hope he feels better soon.

Zoro: Do you think that Luffy likes boys?

He just had to see the blonde's reply.

Sanji: Why do you ask that?

Zoro: I don't know. He just confessed to me that he likes boys. He's not straight at all. I guess it takes guts to come out like that, especially with all the homophobes in the world.

Sanji: I guess.

Zoro: Besides me, you're the only person that actually knows about the whole thing. I don't think Luffy wanted me to tell anybody, but as long nobody else knows, then I think everything's going to be okay.

Sanji: So what's up?

Zoro didn't think the other man would change the topic so quickly. Or that Sanji would even bother to ask what he was doing at that hour. Since he knew what Sanji had been doing, he felt the need to tell the truth about what he had been doing.

Zoro: Not much. I can't sleep. So I'm feeling the wind at the top of my building.

Another reason why he liked going on the top of his building. He could see the building that Sanji lived in–a brick building that was almost identical to his own. Sanji's building was a little shorter, and was one building over from being exactly across the street. The blonde lived on one of the lower floors, but there was a sliding glass door which lead to a balcony in his apartment.

From the top of his building, Zoro could see that the lights were on inside the blonde's apartment.

Sanji: Sounds cold.

Zoro: It's not that bad. There's also a really great view of everything.

He snickered to himself. He couldn't wait for Sanji's reply. Almost immediately, the lights went off inside his apartment. It took him much longer to answer his text message.

Sanji: That's nice. I think I might try to go back asleep now.

Zoro: I know you weren't asleep, you dart-brow :).Your lights have been on this whole time.

Sanji: :0 Are you some sort of demented creeper or something? I can call the cops.

Zoro: You're just avoiding the fact that I caught you lying. It's okay. I imagine you were probably watching porn or something. You probably own a lot of that stuff.

Sanji: No way. That stuff is for people who can't get any, for they jerk off to people they'll never even meet. I was reading a book that Robin lent me.

He tagged along a picture of his hand holding a medium-sized book that Zoro had never even heard of. The title was in a foreign language that he couldn't understand. On the cover, there was a recipe written on a piece of paper being held down by a gun. He wondered what the book was even about–killing or cooking, or whether it was about something totally different. Maybe it was a murder-mystery that involved cooking in it. It seemed like the kind of book the blonde would read.

Before Zoro could thumb out the next message, the blonde sent him another message.

Sanji: You're such a damn pervert. You're almost as bad as Franky.

Zoro: Okay, Franky is a lot better than he used to be. He wears pants in public now.

Sanji: That's not the point! Why do you care so much about what I'm doing right now?

Zoro: Honestly, I wanted to ask you something.

Sanji: What?

He stared at his screen. Without realizing that he was doing so, he sent out the following message:

Zoro: Are you gay?

The blonde's apartment stayed dark for the rest of the night.

Zoro wasn't sure what he was really doing and what thoughts led him into doing what he was doing. Surprising, he liked it, and hoped that the person under him did as well.

When he opened his eyes, he saw Sanji lying under him with a flushed expression on his face.

"Zoro!" Sanji cried. "Why did you just do that?"

He grinned. "I guess I just felt like it."

"That …" Sanji trailed off, laughing. The blonde man was laughing about the situation. His pleased expression gave him all the reassurance in the world. "Was amazing. What the hell. What the hell!"

"Want me to do it again?" Zoro teased the blonde. Sanji nudged him, and when this happened, they heard Luffy's high-pitched voice nearby.

"Have you guys found Sanji's shoes yet? I'm ready to go to the bookstore because Frankly told me that the mecha mangas are SUPER!"

Zoro glanced at the dress shoes lying near the bed in Sanji's bedroom. Sanji's bed … Zoro was positive that he wanted to get to know the blonde a little better in that way.

"Yeah, we have," Zoro told Luffy. "We're ready to go."

Sanji could only give him a secret smile.


	9. Chapter 9

Whitebeard had adopted him after getting to know him, much to his own displeasure. He decided to lie when they had asked about his parents, but this was mostly for his own safety.

When they were finally alone, Whitebeard had a talk with him.

"Why did your parents leave you?" he had wanted to know. He hadn't asked it to be mean, as if was an honest question. "And when?"

When asked these questions before, but Marco refused to answer these questions above all. He stared straight ahead with his typical lazy expression. Whitebeard tried hard not to lose his patience.

"I don't know," he grumbled. "I don't remember."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Marco," Whitebeard said slowly. "Open your mouth."

Marco widened his eyes. "What? Why? What are you talking about?"

Why does he care about that? What will his reaction be when he finds out?

He shook his head, and covered his mouth with both hands. "No!" he refused, his voice muffled by his fingers.

The older man sighed. "Open your mouth now, young man!"

You wouldn't understand. You shouldn't know, and I don't want you to ever find out. "My teeth ar ratchet as hell. I don't brush them much, and have warts–"

"No you don't," Whitebeard cut him off. "Now please open your mouth. It's okay."

This would be the end of his life. He took his fingers off his mouth, and glared at Whitebeard while doing so. Marco parted his lips, and bared his teeth.

"Happy?" the blonde teenger growed. Whitebeard could see that he was vampire now.

Whitebeard guffawed. "I knew it. I knew it when I saw you! Tell me, is that why your parents abandoned you?"

That did not come out right. Whitebeard paled, and Marco tried not to show his new dad that this hurt him. He kept from gulping, and loosened his fists. Then he sighed.

"Probably. I figure that they may have not been ready to have a kid yet," his eyes met Whitebeard's. "I guess they were against abortion."

"That doesn't matter anymore," Whitebeard grinned. "What's important is that you're here, and it's the past that helped you become who you are now."

Whitebeard turned out to be a very wealthy businessman who owned a Japanese computer company that was very popular in Japan. He was an older vampire who adopted other vampires as children. He wasn't married, but wanted to help people in whatever way he could.

It made him smile unafraid.


	10. Chapter 10

I was still sort of embarrassed about earlier.

"Uh, where's the bathroom?" I had asked sheepishly as soon as they had gotten inside the house.

"Go up the stairs, and go inside the first bedroom you see. The rooms all have their own bathrooms," Marco told me quickly. "For convenience."

"Thanks!"

That's exactly what I did. I wasn't thinking when he burst into a random bedroom. The room was well-decorated, and it was so neat, there seemed to be no signs of life in the room, except for the young man with the devious-looking face who was lazily stroking himself on the bed. He looked like a kid in the Luffy sort of sense, but this was because he was short.

I felt my face growing hot. "S-sorry!" I blurted. "I'm so sorry!"

"You pervert," the man couldn't help but laugh at me. The young man's eyes were a dazzling shade of blue. He brushed a few strands of his brown hair out of his eyes. "Come on, you know you want to join me."

"N-no thanks," I was uncomfortable with even considering the idea. The man wasn't really my type. "I'll just go to the bathroom somewhere else."

When I turned around to walk out of the room, the man forced his way in front of me to block the door before I could even blink. The man's body pressed against my own, and there was friction between the two of us, especially down below.

"You're not going anywhere, Portgas D. Ace."

My skin whitened. "How do you know my name?"

"Oh, you know … I just happened to hear you talking to Marco, and Jinbe downstairs. No big deal," the man's eyes had darkened to navy. "It's not the same thing as eavesdropping because us vampires have unnaturally good hearing."

This man is a vampire? Does that make him related to Marco in any kind of way? If they are related, then do more vampires live in this house, too? Then, it struck me: Maybe Whitebeard was one of them as well. Fuck.

"You're so ravishing," the man complimented. "I just love the guests Marco brings over. He has such good tastes, but I can see that like the others, your hair is dark. He has this thing for dark hair … Dark hair … And freckles …"

With these words, the shorter man began to toy with me. To keep from yelling, I covered my mouth to keep from screaming out loud. Since the man could hear us earlier, then couldn't Marco hear us? When I started to moan lightly from his touches, the man moved his hands toward the belt of my shorts.

"No," I plead. "Not that. Not now."

His lips were settled in a determined grin. "Marco won't mind that much."

"No," I repeat while he presses it. I take control, and grip his hands to stop him. "Stop. Please."

"Tell me," the man snickers. "You've never had sex with a man before, have you? Your previous relationship was with a woman, one of whom I'd want to date if I wasn't gay. She was absolutely gorgeous! Anyway, that's not the point. The point is that you used to date men while you were in high school, but nothing ever happened besides the kisses, and hugs, right?"

I wonder how he knew about that. I definitely wasn't a virgin, but I wasn't sure whether I wanted to sleep with a man. If I was to sleep with a man, it would be somebody like Marco, and not the creepy, sexually-frustrated short man.

It's just too bad that I have no idea what to say. Instead of saying anything witty like they do in the movies, I stay silent, and stare at him. Since vampires can read minds, I try to clear my mind the best that I can, and try a different approach.

"I really just can't resist you," I do my best to sound seductive. I guide his hands away from my belt, and slip them under my shirt. "You're overwhelming me, and maybe that's why I can't seem to be keeping up with you. "

"Ah …"

"Just do whatever you want to do with me," I moan as he tweaks one of my nipples. "I don't give a damn anymore."

"You're something, aren't you?" a shadow crawls over his face, but one that isn't dark enough to shade his sinister smile. You could even call it a rape face. He moves his fingers quickly, as if making his mind up about what to do with me next. Since it was him, he was probably thinking of something that involved whips or chains. Anything out of Fifty Shades of Gray. "I fucking love you."

There seems to be no real emotion behind this besides lust. It pains me to hear the words, and not because they're coming from him. The last time I heard these words, it was from Vivi. It was the day before our break up. I had spent the night at her house, and of course, we had slept in the same bed, and everything. There were plenty of guest rooms in her house, but I always managed to sneak into her room where we sometimes had the occasional sex. Always cuddling, always, with plenty of soft kisses where we would whisper wonderful things to each other that we would normally never say out loud. She was getting ready to go out with me on a mall date, and she was putting on her makeup to coordinate with her runway-friendly outfit. Vivi complained that she needed all the makeup in the world to make herself look decent to go out, but I think she just wanted to get a compliment from me. Anyway, I told her that she looked fine, and she looked stunning. She didn't even deny it afterwards, and then told me she loved me for always being so kind to her even though she felt awful.

I couldn't bring myself to say it back to him, even if I would have been lying. I just couldn't say it. I decided that it was safe to nod, and tilt my head back when his hands gripped my hips. I wondered whether he saw my own smile, and ever considered the fact that I would ever kick him in the groin, which I did.

Vampires weren't an exception to the pain that groin-related injuries bring, but I wasn't complaining. First, his expression turned into a mixture of shock, and agony. The man released a noise from his lips that's hard to describe without making noise. Finally, his hands let go of my hips, his knees buckled, and he fell.

I took the first second I got to escape. There was no way I was sticking around to see what the psycho would do next. Since the man lived with Marco, I knew that he would probably find out about what had happened sooner or later, and I would have to explain everything to him. I vaulted over him, and made a mad dash to open the door. I opened the door with so much force that I thought I would break the door knob. Fortunately, I didn't, and was able to escape without the man yelling after me.

Marco found me in the middle of the hallway, and looked startled to see me run into his arms.

"What just happened in there?" Marco held me tight, but not in the way that the man had done to me.

The embrace was warm, and was one that I could release my tears in without worrying that a camera would track my every move, and everybody would know that I had cried. I didn't even care that I was crying–just because I was with him.

My body racked with tears as I told him everything that had happened to me in the room with the strange man who lived with him. During this whole time, Marco literally did nothing but listen to me–he didn't even blink. He started to look angry by the time I was telling him about how the man said he had loved me.

"When he's not too busy trying to suck up to Whitebeard, Haruta can be kind of a bastard sometimes. I have no idea why, but he figures that every man he meets just finds him irresistible, and immediately wants to fuck even after the man refuses," Marco didn't hide his disgust. "The bastard even did that to me."

I sniffled, "What did you do?"

I'm sure he didn't do what I did.

"I used to carry a knife with me all the time. I had never used it on anybody before, but I wasn't afraid to use it. When Haruta brought his lips close to my own," he shuddered, as if remembering the memories, "I just had to stab him."

"Where is he right now?"Jinbe frowned while staring down at his watch. It was late, and I wondered whether Thatch was worrying about me–I had a lot to explain to him. The three of us were still waiting for Whitebeard, who I had found out was Marco, and Haruta's adoptive father. "I'm starting to worry about him. What if something happened to him?"

Marco dismissed the idea. "No, he wouldn't let anything or anybody hurt him. You know how he is."

"You think he would've gotten home by now …"

"Ace," Marco said suddenly. "Can I see you for a second?"

He stands up from the couches that we settled on, and gently brings my hands into his own, helping me stand back up after I nod in reply.

We go to the attic, which he swears is his favorite room in the entire house. Their attic has boxes, old furniture, and countless trunks which must hide treasures like old pictures, and memories. It's very quiet, and chillier than the other rooms. The items were mostly pushed against one wall, but a single couch faces a large window. Marco doesn't say much at this point, but we both know that he wants us to sit on the couch, which we do. If possible, his expression calms even more than before.

Once we're seated again, I face him. Breaking the silence, I say, "This place is peaceful."

Marco smiles more shyly than before. "That's why I like it here. I think everybody should have this one spot where they can go when they just want to get away from everything. I started coming here after I was adopted. I used to get in a lot more arguments with people like Haruta, and always thought about how much of a freak I was compared to people my age. The fact that I wasn't human just made everything worse … It was hard to stop smoking, and I'm not as bad as I used to be."

All I can do is stare at him, but he doesn't take these stares in a bad way. Instead, he keeps on talking, but not because he wants to fill in my quietness. Conversation just keeps coming with him.

A place where nobody will ask questions, and you know that you're totally alone. Mostly, you know that nothing bad can happen to you in your special place because that's the reason why it's special. Don't you think, yoi?"

It takes awhile before what he said sinks into my mind. I was so busy thinking about how different he seems in the attic than he is in any other place I've seen him before. Marco stares down at his clasped hands, and I face away to awe over the magnificent view over the rest of the city. His house was on the tall hills that overlook the city, the ones that hover above the rest of society. The lights inspire me, and make me think of all the possibilities that the city has for me. Who cares that I have to work at a fast-food place because there isn't many job opportunities for college students? In the city, I'd finish school, find a job, and a place of my own.

Then, sitting right next to me is him. I have to blush as I think about it, and I feel warm on the inside as I do. It's a beautiful fantasy, but is it really realistic?

"Marco," I blush even harder as I talk. "Have you ever thought of the future?"

He snaps out of the daze he was in as he was staring down at his hands. Marco's eye widen, but soon relax to their regular state. "What do you mean? Like the one with the robots or the flying cars?"

"No. Well, it would be sort of neat if cars could fly, but it would be great if they found the cure for cancer before that," my expression is sort of dreamy. " I meant, the near future. What are your dreams for the near future? What do you see yourself doing … In five years?"

Like I did before, he can just stare. I get a bad feeling about the whole thing, and regret strikes me across the face as the reality hits me that maybe, Marco had never thought about it. I wasn't the biggest nerd ever, but I wanted to get a degree, and a good job. From the looks of it, he didn't go to any school even though he was around my age. Since his family was rich, he assumed he didn't have to go to college because Whitebeard was nice enough to adopt so many people, and support them even as adults.

"To be honest with you …" There comes a smooth chuckle from his lips in the sexiest way possible. "I could care less. I've been thinking about moving out, and buying this beat-up car to drive around the country. You know, to see what's up, and stuff. I saw this one movie a few years ago with the girl who played Bella from Twilight as one of the characters. The movie is about these people who do drugs, have too much sex, and road trip around the country. They did it before it was cool, which makes them total badasses who don't give a damn about anything. No commitments, no regrets, no worries–that's what I think it would be like. There's other people who have to be thinking the same thing … I'd have followers with the same kind of lifestyle."

The only thing that I got out of that was the fact that he wants to run away from everything, and be Peter Pan. I don't know what my face looks like, but I feel myself tensing a little bit.

"How long are you planning on doing that?" I try my best to keep my calm. Your fantasy is so incredibly childish that it's unrealistic. The people in the movie may have gotten away with it, but it's the twenty-first century. It's a nice dream, but there's no way you'd be able to get away with it.

Marco pulls a pack of cigarettes out of his back pocket. He slowly pulls a cigarette out, and a lighter after that. He lit his cigarette as he said, "Actually, it wouldn't even be that long. Just a few months, which should be enough time for me to sort out my thoughts, but mostly my life. On the road, anything is possible."

"Why would you want to road trip like that? It sounds pretty somber to me. Long nights on lonely roads … With nothing to comfort feelings of isolation."

He holds my face close to his own, his cigarette behind held in his spare hand. "I wouldn't get lonely because you'd be with me on the road. Wouldn't you? Wouldn't you do that for me? Ace, you're important to me, and I'd want you to be part of my journey."

I look into his eyes, which are far from deceiving. I can tell that he's being completely honest, and the whole thing isn't just a teenage dream. Marco actually plans on going on a road trip, and wants me to go with him.

"I …"

I'd be with him for who-knows-how-long. I really like him, and would get to know him better that way. Then again, we'd be far away from home. I couldn't see Luffy or Garp … Or any of my friends … Thach … School … The problems I haven't settled with Vivi … My job. I'd have to give up a lot of things to go with him, and be away from it all. Yet, if I don't go, there would be the void left unfulfilled, and we would both be alone in separate ways, our separate worlds apart with none of our dreams fulfilled.

"We can't be apart," I say. Marco nods, and opens his mouth to talk, but I want to continue before he starts to talk. "And I'm sorry to say this, but we really can't be together, either There's so many things wrong with everything–the world is a cold, unfair place. It's not that I don't like you–no, that's really not it. It's just that I'm not sure whether it would be the best thing for us."

Like that, I'm sure I just ruined the little feelings that I thought were between us. I feel like a jerk, and feel like crying again, but the tears don't come, and neither does his reply.

Marco doesn't leave the attic, but he closes his eyes with a look of solitude while smoking his cigarette away. I know that I have officially broken his spirit, and there's nothing I can do to mend his heart. Water is pooling in my eyes by now, and I grit my teeth as I'm suddenly overwhelmed by how much of a hurtful person I can be. I do things wrong, and mess everything up–people don't forgive me, and I forgive myself even less.

I get up off the couch, and officially hate myself for everything that I've ever done.

"I'm sorry that you had to deal with somebody like me. I'm sorry, I should get going now. Goodbye, Marco."

I'm sorry for falling in love with you because the whole thing was a hopeless mess. All I did was break us down even more than we already were, and brought things to a point that no prayer could fix.

I start to cry, and don't bother to hold myself as I leave.

I could get somewhere in life, but then I'd be getting nowhere close to something. My happiness isn't like most people's, and most people need material things among other things to be happy in life. My hand trembles over where my cell phone used to be, but my phone is gone, and suddenly, I don't care whether Vivi cares anymore because the person I care about is the person who I'm running away from.

There is something wrong with me, and I wish I knew what it was. Hell, if I did, it'd probably be something so terrible that I couldn't take it anymore. Yes, that's what I am–terrible, and nothing else at all.

You know, Marco's voice finds it's way into my head as I'm waiting at the nearest bus stop. You'll never really be alone in this world. This world is a small place, and I can still do this even though we're a good distance away from each other. I wonder if you think this counts as haunting you. Oh well. It's not like anybody but you can even hear me. I'm not sure whether you're comfortable with this, but it's like we're sharing a secret.

Secrets, I tell him. Are sometimes meant to be shared, but this is okay. However, I'm not okay right now, but that's okay.

There's a long pause.

No, that's not okay. I'm not sure whether anybody has ever told you this, but you blame yourself too much. I guess that's because you're so kind to everybody because you care.

I care, and that sees to be a logical explanation to why some people take advantage of me. Before, I thought that you were sucking my blood because you needed it, and wanted my blood. I must ask you: Were you taking advantage of me back then?

No, never. I wouldn't ever do that do you because then I wouldn't be able to life with myself. Thinking about it, what you said was sort of true. I'm a vampire who was abandoned by his parents, gave sexual favors to strangers in exchange for drugs when I was living on the streets, and lives with people who have serious problems. It's not safe for you to be around me when I can have outbursts of desire–I could even kill you. It's best for us to be apart even though I'll never forget you.

I look out the window of the bus. I had stopped crying, but I don't want to start crying again, especially on the bus.

I can go back if you want. I swear that I'll do anything for you even if that means risking my own future because I don't care about any of that anymore.

I stare at people going about their everyday lives on the street. Even at night, people are still out. I wonder which ones of them just experienced a bad breakup, have bad family lives, or are bullied in school. They walk down the street with faces like a canvas, so nobody suspects what's going on, so nobody can judge them. I wonder whether any of them feel as miserable as I do right now.

I decide to get off at a random stop where I end up walking down the street.

Why don't you care anymore, Ace? You're brilliant, and I'd heard of you even before we met. Haruta told me that Izo told him about you. I didn't know you in person, but I came to admire the charismatic young man that was described in all the stories. However, the charismatic young man doesn't know he's chasing after a useless cause. Go–get away from me, and just leave me alone now. It was fun before, but now it hurts because of all the sacrifices I'm seeing you make. It hurts because I love you, and that's the reason why I have to send you away.

I find a payphone, and insert the correct amount of change into the phone. Then, I look at my arm, and know what to do. I dial Marco, and clear my throat.

"Hello?"

The voice that I fell for is on the other line. He sounds obvious to what was going on between the two of us in my mind. I can tell Marco doesn't know it's me, which is good. I wanted it to be this way in the first place.

"It's me," I croak. "Ace."

"Ace," he whispers. "None of this can ever work out."

"Yes, it can," I blurt. "It can, and so can our dreams. Even your dream of road-tripping the country."

Marco sighs. "How? Tell me. I don't see how–"

"Like you said, I'm never really ever going to be alone because we have this thing where we can talk to each other in our heads, right?" I keep going. "So, we're always going to be together, even though it may be awhile before we see each other again. Days, weeks, months, even years apart cannot stop communication between two people that love each other. There's phone-calling, and I'm glad I asked you for your number. I'm not much of a social media guy, but maybe I can make an exception. Just for you. While I'm sitting in class one day or if I had a really horrible day at work, I can talk to you even though you could be staring at the stars while smoking one of your cigarettes in the middle of nowhere."

There is total tranquility now, and I'm sure that all of the bad vibes have gone away now. I close my eyes, and when I open them, I'm brave enough to add, "I love you, and can't live with or without you."

I can just see his lazy smile on the other line. I imagine him still smoking, maybe on the couch in the attic while staring down at the city. I wonder whether any vampire power can give you the ability to see a person's blush from a far distance. At that point, I was blushing, and felt closer to him than before.

"This sounds good with me. I'm going to have a lot to think about, and most of it will be about you," Marco gushed. "There is one thing that I must do."

"What's that?"

Marco's tone was solemn. "Promise that until I come back, I'll wait for for you. I may be immortal as long as I continue to drink blood, but I would wait for you for as long as I have to."

"I'm a human," I remind him. "Even though I don't like to think about it, I'm going to die one day, and you'll still be living. I will also wait for you, Phoenix Marco, even if it means waiting for decades."

"Decades?" he laughs. "No, you shouldn't wait that long for me. I don't deserve it!"

I curl the phone cord around my fingers. "Yes, you do. Everybody may not want to be loved, but I think everybody deserves it no matter how awful the person believes they are. You're wonderful, Marco, and you make me feel exuberant."

"Exuberant," he says slowly. "Throwing out your college vocabulary? What does that even mean?"

"Exuberant is just a fancy word for 'happy'," I explain with an exuberant smile on my face. "I think I feel exuberant about the future now."

"Knowing that you'll be in mine, I can live on with myself."

To Be Continued?

Well, this is everything I had planned out for this story. The Zoro x Sanji, and Marco x Ace will continue on in Dirty Laundry … I promise that it'll come up eventually.

Again, thanks to the people who helped this story become a reality, and those who read this! :)

~ ObscureAuthor (Ashuri)


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